


Even Darkness Must Pass

by konavraptor



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst and Fluff and Smut, Canon Rewrite, Don't Examine This Too Closely, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Fluff and Smut, Hurt/Comfort, I Don't Even Know, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I'm sorry Poe just deserves some fluff, Kylo Ren Has Issues, Kylo Ren Needs a Hug, Poe Dameron Being an Idiot, Poe Dameron Can Sing, Poe Dameron Has PTSD, Poe Dameron Hurts So Prettily, Poe Dameron Is A Mess, Porn With Plot, Possessive Kylo Ren, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protective Poe Dameron, Smut, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, everybody is happy, lots of disgusting and corny fluff and romance, not really a slow burn for once, there will be angst and pain but these characters deserve at least one good ending, this will have a happy ending
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-13 02:33:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 23
Words: 84,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28520943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/konavraptor/pseuds/konavraptor
Summary: "How many enemies do you have that you have to take chances like that often?" The woman asked, raising her eyebrows."A lot of people out there want my head."The woman removed her arms from Poe's neck and leaned against the side of the X-wing, leaning her head back and crossing her arms in relief. Her eyesight had come back completely now and she watched as the pilot did the same. It was only then that they remembered they had not gotten each other's names, and Poe remembered that he needed to find out who this woman was."What's your name, anyways?" She inquired."Poe. Poe Dameron. And you?" He inquired. She cocked her head in thought before responding."Kaia."***Kaia Wyn had left the Jedi to serve the Force and accepted her fate in a frozen carbonite prison when she'd crossed one too many lines. However, when she is set free by Commander Poe Dameron and barely escapes danger crammed into his lap on an X-wing, secrets are set free and events are set in motion that were never supposed to happen.
Relationships: Ben Solo | Kylo Ren/Original Female Character(s), Kylo Ren/Reader, Kylo Ren/Rey, Poe Dameron/Original Character(s), Poe Dameron/Original Female Character(s), Poe Dameron/Reader
Comments: 15
Kudos: 57





	1. The Pilot

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just so you're not confused: this is an AU. A lot of the events that happen in the Force Awakens have been changed for plot purposes. The final piece to the map to Luke Skywalker has not been found yet. Rey was found on Jakku by Kylo Ren because she was Force sensitive, and brought to Starkiller. She was there for about a week until the Resistance attacked Starkiller and in the middle of the chaos, Finn helped Rey escape and Han Solo let them flee on the Falcon. Starkiller was destroyed, but Han Solo is still alive after the confrontation.

She had had hope, once.

It was a fragile thing, hope. Delicate and beautiful, like a snowflake falling through a silent sky into the trees. She'd used to see hope in everything around her, exuberant and full of joy and life. The darkness now gone from the galaxy she'd watched the sparks give rise to a glorious conflagration that spread throughout the galaxy and healed it of any conflictions, smoothed the marks and wounds that the war had left.

But no scars can truly be erased.

As much as she had found hope and as much as she herself generated within the beings of every living creature in the galaxy, hope began to get away from her and she found herself clinging to the taut fragments, digging her heels into the ground before being lifted away with the snowflake into the wind, catapulting and hurtling through a wicked wind of emotions and hopelessness, trying to savor that last tiny shard of the precious thing before it floated off. She had to face the buffering winds clinging to hope with one arm while trying to broadcast it with another and remain the face of the good guys. That's what she was known for, was it not? Leia Organa, the beacon of hope through the galaxy used to generate hope from within.

But now, she was barren of it.

When he'd been a child with a mop of black curls bouncing on his head as his father dodged blaster fire in the atmospheres of planets, when he'd walked quietly and behaved in his neat and tidy clothing next to his mother while curious and ogling eyes stared, she'd thought that maybe, just maybe a member of her family could be raised to have a rather ordinary life. He'd been so innocent then. Soft brown eyes as wide as a doe's he'd pitter-patter behind his parents, quiet as a lamb while Han and Leia rowed and bickered. If there was anything to regret in her son's upbringing, it was that. No child should have to see that. It's the reason she could never convince Ben that she had loved him before he died. Before that horrific and callous monster changed the conflagration of flames dancing through the galaxy into a wicked and terrible wildfire, crashing through planets and burning through the galaxy leaving nothing but destruction and chaos in its wake.

Leia had had hope, once, but Ben Solo died, and her hope had died along with it.

* * *

She wished things could go back to simpler times, that night on Endor when they'd forgotten the world and simply faded away into the celebration full of music and laughter and love and of course, the overwhelmingly affection and kind Ewoks as terrifying as they could be. Without making a sound General Organa rested her forehead in her hand, staring down at the pristine ivory countertop in front of her as the sound of radio transmissions bombarded her ears from left to right. A routine scouting mission had turned out to be a full-on ambush and she had jumped the gun too soon yet again to learn that they were vastly and horrifically outnumbered. With every radio that abruptly cut off into a stream of static her stomach leaped a little more. That was one more letter she would have to write, one more hologram she'd have to record. Over the years, others had offered to take over that position but Leia had always insisted that it was her duty. It was. Each and every life lost within the Resistance hit her harder and harder and she'd rather families would grieve slightly easier if they knew how precious their family member's life was to the Resistance.

Of course, with suicide missions like this it couldn't help with their image. The deaths happening now were needless, and Leia almost wished that she'd thought this one out just a second longer. But he was one step ahead of her. He always was. And for that, she hated herself. "…lost Orange-5, Red-2, and Blue-8. Preparing to transition into- _BB-8, that does NOT matter right now! -_ the jump butIgottagothey'reright-" Leia's nerves jerked as she listened to Poe Dameron cut out his transmission- at first, she never quite knew whether it was planned radio silence or the radio being burnt into a crisp but she always knew that Commander Dameron would make it out alive. She'd grown fond of the man, and as arrogant as he was he was the best pilot she'd ever come to know other than her own husband, of course, and through rumors, evidently her father. Lifting her head from her hand, she reached over to the intercom in front of her and pressed down on the gray button. "Black-One, I request that all units retreat. All units and all fighters off, now. Lieutenant Connix is transmitting flight routes to the squadrons as we speak, over." Before she'd even finished talking Poe had switched his voice-capabilities back on just in time for her to hear Dameron screeching at his odd but endearing little droid for some mechanical issue.

"General, with all due respect, we can take them-"

"Poe, _now,_ " Leia said with warning in her tone. "We've already lost enough, and if there was even a _tiny_ possibility of pulling this through, you'll be surrounded before you can finish. Now."

When she heard the frustrated shout before the transmission clicked off, Leia squeezed her eyes shut. She prayed that Dameron had listened to her and as valuable as he was to the Resistance he liked to practice free will rather often. "…Black 2, 3, and 7 jumping into lightspeed now, followed by Orange 1, 3, and 5…" Connix began to shout across the room. Leia's shoulders slumped in relief and she leaned onto the desk in front of her, a massive weight taken off of her shoulders but the deaths still looming over her, forever to haunt her.

* * *

Poe had always hated the flight home- too often scenes from the battle replayed in his head and he watched from afar as he saw what could have went differently, how they could've dealt more damage, been craftier with their maneuvers- how many lives could have been saved. As long as Poe had been a pilot that was one thing that he'd yet to find a way to deal with- people called him the best, General Organa himself spoke of him in the highest of words to other but every single flight home, Poe never truly felt that way. Especially after this battle. They'd lost too many and with the gift of hindsight he was able to see what he could've done, how he could've spared lives, how he could've saved the General from writing a few extra letters. But, as hard on himself as he was, he was more than aware that arguing with BB-8 for the flight home while trying to cooperate and make minor repairs on his ship would pass the time. The cockpit of X-wings only had room for their pilot but either way he'd managed to twist around in his seat and lean over the back of it to, at the very least, tinker with some of the closer wires and shout directions to Beebee. In the middle of one such altercation he heard the radio crack to life with an abrupt burst of panic, causing Poe to flinch and drop his wrench to a crevice he would not be able to reach until they landed. With an annoyed groan, he twisted back around and sank into his seat, sighing and lazily reaching over before answering the intercom. "Commander Dameron, I'm rerouting you to a nearby station for your squadron to refuel. I will transmit the coordinates over to your ships right now, over."

"Great timing, Ko," Poe sarcastically scoffed as he rolled his eyes. "Can I ask what trash hole you're taking us to now?"

There was a few moments of silence before her staticky voice broke through the electronics again."Mos Niport on Nar Kreeta. The nearest station is pinging about ten minutes away from your current location. You know the procedure." Up until then, Lieutenant Connix had been speaking in a formal and monotone voice, concentrated on making sure the ships got back to the Resistance safely. Now, however, she wanted to get one last jab in at her old friend. "And Poe? Let's not get stuck here too long, alright?" However, Poe did not even register the friendliness in her tone nor did he realize the amount of relief she'd had in her voice due to him being alright.

"No, not Mos Niport. Reroute us to a different planet," he responded in a panic. As the words spilled from his mouth, he flew forward and his upper body hit the front control panel of his X-wing with a loud crash. He dropped his headset to the floor and groaned; he'd just emerged from lightspeed and around him, the rest of his squadron was doing the same.

"…sorry," Poe heard as he flinched and reached down for his headset where Connix was still speaking. She barely missed a beat, however, as Poe inspected his arms for any wounds or bruises. Just a hurt ego, he supposed. "A majority of your squadron does not have the fuel necessary to reach the next station, approximately 3 parsecs away."

"Ko, I-" Poe complained but only heard static as Lieutenant Connix hung up on her end of things. Poe sighed and hung his head, sliding back into his chair and allowed the headset to slip from his fingers onto the floor. Closing his eyes, he leaned back and craned his head up as his ship slowed and the autopilot began to begin its slow descent towards the port Ko had booked for them. Every so often, the thought of leaving the Resistance had pranced across his mind, tip-toeing and not doing spectacularly well to hide it. Of the late, it always began to seem like a less and less asinine deal. The First Order was growing stronger by the day, especially since the recent murder of one of their older generals and the rather bloodthirsty replacement. He wasn't sure how they were going to pull it off; every flight lately had resembled this one. Always too many lost. Always too many. And always so preventable, too- that is the part that Poe hated. But what else was he to do? If the Resistance broke apart then the galaxy would only continue to smoke and burn. They'd win. The good always did. Poe had the utmost faith in that, at least.

Upon landing, Poe had already sat up and maintained a rigid posture, bouncing his leg nervously as the autopilot settled the ship on the landing strip, X-wings coming down in ports on either side of him. Poe hated this city and this planet. He watched with anxious eyes as a dull green Fluggrian approached his ship, surrounded by rusted droids scurrying about the platform, preparing to make the necessary repairs that Poe's ship had sustained from the battle. But Poe did not want that. His squadron could make it back to D'Qar without any repair services- he just needed a refueling. So, Poe crossed his arms and set his mind to remaining in his ship while the squadron was refueled- "Commander Dameron, we need you out here," he heard Tallissan call out through the intercoms.

Per usual, he wasn't going to have things his way today.

With a hiss, the roof of his X-wing lifted up and he felt the dry air of the planet hit his face of a wave, reeking of oil and fuel and the general scents of a city. Scents too familiar to him, but also too familiar to his past- a past he'd tried over and over again to throw away but he could never seem to fully forget. The Fluggrian had already started to interrogate him before his feet even landed on the stone of the port, but Poe just waved his hand at the Fluggrian's offers. "Just refueling, that's all." He did not stop to amuse the creature as his eyes landed on Tallie who was speaking with several other members of the Squadron who all had looks of relief on their faces masking the anxiety and the trauma of losing so many of their comrades. Poe knew that masquerade as it was one he'd always worn quite well. "Tallie," Poe greeted. He acknowledged the others with a quick nod.

"Commander-"

"Poe," he corrected her. He'd never felt quite right whenever people gifted him the name of Commander, especially when it came from the mouth's of people he considered friends, and throughout his history with the Resistance there'd been times Tallie had been more than just a friend. Still, she remained to be one of the most stubborn women Poe had ever met but her trait of being so intensely strong-willed was something the Resistance valued.

"Commander, we need more than just refueling. Some of us don't have the capabilities of making it back to D'Qar in this condition," she informed him. The pilots she'd been standing with stared at Poe and when he finally got around to looking into their eyes he saw worry. He saw the truth.

  
" _Dammit. Fucking stars,"_ he hissed under his breath, raising his hand to his mouth while he pondered. Perhaps him and Beebee could make the most absolutely necessary repairs themselves- after all, he'd found that droids and portmasters were never quite as quick nor clever as him when it came to repairs, even if Mos Niport had some of the Hutt's most prized portmasters in employment. "Kriff. How bad is it-" he began, but was abruptly cut up by a rather jarring sound. All of the pilots turned their heads towards Black-3 just in time to see the cockpit go up in flames, screaming droids pouring in from the workstations lining the port and spewing white clouds from hoses within their bodies to ease the flames. With a sigh, Tallie turned back to Poe.

"Pretty bad, I'd say," she responded in a rather sarcastic tone. Poe groaned and turned around to face the Fluggrian poking and prodding at his ship, speaking in a harsh tone to his droids who began to retrieve tools and parts to make repairs on his ship.

"Hey!" He called out, beginning to jog towards the creature. The Fluggrian turned to him. "How long do you think all of this is going to take?" Poe beckoned to the ships of the Black squadron spread out throughout the part, all in various conditions ranging from practically fine to on fire, quite literally.

" _Hard to say. Seven, eight hours?"_

"No, no- we don't _have_ eight hours," Poe responded in an increasingly desperate and annoyed tone. There was _no way_ that Poe Dameron was going to stay in this city long enough for _her_ to find him. The Fluggrian shrugged.

_"Three or four with the most basic repairs but I can assure you it will not be a smooth ride home-"_

"Is there _nothing_ else you can do?" Poe pleaded, staring at the alien with furrowed eyebrows. The Fluggrian shrugged again. Poe clenched his fists. The sudden urge to deck the alien in the face was growing rather strong.

" _Sorry, my friend. Four hours."_

Now Poe truly had to restrain himself from lashing out in anger- after all, it was not the Fluggrian's fault that the repairs were going to take this long. It was his own. If he'd taken proper care of his squadron, led them in the correct direction, they'd be in far better shape in far larger number-but now was not the time to grieve over the losses of the battle. After all this time of being a commander, the grieving process never got easier. He was able to conceal his pain more accurately now, but inside it always felt the same. Still, as droids wheeled around him with beeps and shrieks and squeals and portmasters shouted out gruff and sharp orders to the droids beginning to repair and refuel the ships, he could not help feel frustrated that Connix had decided to lead them _here_ of all places. A hand on his shoulder ripped Poe from his trance. He turned to see Tallie reaching out with a sympathetic smile on her face. "There's a cantina just that way. You could use some food."

* * *

Poe had always enjoyed getting a drink with Tallie. It was refreshing to see the formality fade away from her face after a drink or two, see the face of the usually stoic lieutenant give way to the bubbly and hopeful woman that Tallissan was. He remembered the first time he'd met her. She'd been a new recruit, so full of passion and hope. He liked to think that that was the reason he had been so drawn to her in the first place. She reminded Poe of himself quite often, sometimes in ways he did not particularly like- especially the hard-headedness and sarcasm that penetrated both of their personalities quite deeply. Of course, in the field, she'd come to learn to form the same masquerade as Poe had. They had to. There was no other option. It was either put on a mask or face the tragedy in the wake of the Resistance and drown. So, Poe enjoyed allowing the warm liquids to peel away at their masks for a moment, their facades slipping to the ground as they sat at the countertop of the bar with a few of the other squadron members. "…you ever been here?" Tallie inquired from beside him, drawing Poe out of his trance.

"I've been everywhere, Tal," Poe gently chided before taking a sip of his drink. Tallie sighed and smiled, annoyed, as always, with Poe's endearing arrogance.  
  
"No, have you really been here?" Tallie asked, leaning forward and squinting her eyes, attempting to prune anymore information out of him. He couldn't make eye contact with her because he hated lying to her.

"It's highly Hutt controlled, Tal. Had business here when I was a kid."

"What kind of business?"

"The kind of business that makes me want to get off of this planet as soon as physically possible," Poe murmured under his breath. While they'd been sitting he'd already begun to make routine sweeps of the bustling cantina with just his eyes. He'd yet to see any familiar faces but the kind of faces that'd be watching for him would know how to remain unseen in a place like this. Beside Poe, Tallie continued to sip on her drink and watch anxiety flood Poe's face as he twitched nervously in his seat. As long as she'd known the commander he'd always been one to maintain a sarcastic façade over what he was feeling no matter what. He'd always been "the funny guy", so to see something in this city keep him in such an anxious state worried her. He knew something that she did not. So, when two beings appeared behind Poe from within the throng of people in the cantina with blasters subtly poking their cold metal ends into Poe's back, Tallissan could say that she was not all that surprised.


	2. Escape

Poe had been bested yet again.

He silently cursed himself to the stars and back for allowing the loss at the battle and now this to happen. Perhaps he should truly leave the Resistance; after all, he had not been doing them any favors of the late, had he? Well, now that these two creatures were guiding him at blaster-point towards an old acquaintance he began to think that perhaps he would not have to ever worry about returning to the Resistance. Still, he held true to himself and barraged the two aliens with a stream of snarky comments and jokes to attempt to lighten the mood but received little more than a few grunts. Chatty fellows, Poe thought to himself. He was simply trying to deflect from what was to come. He had not exactly left Mos Niport on good terms with those that inhabited the city, and a particular crime lord whose talons gripped the entire planet. He'd only been seventeen, a child, so he would've liked to blame those who'd been around him. But, he'd been the one to wrong her. Not anybody else.

He had noted that the halls had changed in time, though. Last he'd been here the place had been bright and bustling, full of spice runners and murderers and those who made a livelihood off of scamming the innocent. Now… the walls were damp. Bare. Those who dared to walk these halls scurried along the edges in the shadows, fearing away from the duo who guided the infamous Resistance commander through the hallways. Not even the most powerful in the galaxy had escaped from the First Order's wrath, and there was not a soul that wanted to be caught dead near a pilot of the Resistance. Poe's stomach churned. He recalled what this particular woman did to those who wronged her, let alone those whose head could give her a pretty penny.

As they neared the end of the hall they passed through a stone archway guarded by two sentries who grunted and nodded at the trio who passed through. Oh, Poe recognized this room all right. Here was the throne of-

"Poe Dameron," a voice purred from the end of the room. Her back was facing him; she was caressing some furred animal that stood near her waist, growling at Poe. He nervously glanced at the creature but kept his voice steadfast and calm.  
  
"Lallani. Fancy seeing you here."

"Oh, Dameron, did not expect to see me again after your last little stunt?" The Quarren turned to face Poe now. Her skin was no less bright red than it had been when they'd dealt their first business together all those years ago, but the stress of the last few years in the galaxy had certainly added a few more wrinkles and stress lines to her skin that had not been there before. "Boys, you're dismissed," she waved her hand at the aliens who'd been guiding Poe and Poe felt their blasters pull off of his back. His shoulders slacked and he sighed but when his eyes spotted a gleam of silver protruding from Lallani's waistband he tensed up again. He knew he must tread around Lallani wisely for those who did not occasionally met their fate at the hand of her electrowhip that had been devised and put together by some of the most talented in the galaxy. Poe himself had always managed to avoid meeting the electric tendril but he'd seen what had happened to those who had not.

"You know, I've seen you all the times in my dreams, darling," Poe said, a small and warm smile growing on his face. The Quarren laughed, much to Poe's surprise.

"You flatter me too much, Dameron. One of these days I'll wrangle you up to stay here with me," she said in warm tone but Poe gulped at the meaning of those words. He knew that if Lallani did not want somebody to leave this place, they would not, and most of the time that meant she wanted them dead. After what Poe had done to her last time… well, he was more than surprised that her companions had not shot him on sight.

"Well, once my business with the First Order is done maybe I'll return to my roots."

"Mhm. It's rather funny that you mention the First Order, isn't it? Last I recall I received a transmission that the bounty on your head had increase thrice fold. You may have found defeat at your last interaction with them but the damage you dealt did not go unnoticed. And, as it so happens, I am in dire need of pocket change right now," the Quarren purred, beginning to circle Poe with her arms behind her back. Poe's eyes trained on the handle of her whip poking out from underneath her robes. No, Poe, he thought to himself. Tallie would be here soon with backup. Poe was confident of that, but he just wasn't confident how soon they'd be able to locate them. If she did not get here soon enough….

What he was thinking of doing was insane. In fact, he knew that if Leia had been able to listen into his thoughts at this exact moments than she'd be hollering, "Dameron, you are the stupidest piece of meat this galaxy has ever seen…" but Poe did not like the alternatives if he just stood here and let Lallani get the best of him. She wanted him dead, he knew that by the bounty that she had put on his head, but he knew that the First Order's bounty was higher and he'd prefer to be dead than handed over to them. He felt so helpless, but there was only one thing that he could think of doing. He only prayed that he was quick enough to pull it off. Lallani was quite foolish to come so close to him without any guards and that was something she'd be regretting for quite some time.

"Well, let's not give them any time to get here," Poe said. Before Lallani could even process what Poe had said he lunged for the silver protruding from her waistband, and though she attempted to jump away she'd not been able to get away from him. His hands gripped the cold metal and he tugged on it finding the whip sliding easily out of her waistband. The metal string uncoiled and rolled to the ground and Poe's thumb found a button protruding from the side of the handle just as blaster fire began to rain down upon him. As Poe hit the button he could feel the handle begin to vibrate as the whip began to thrum with electricity, and as he'd watched Lallani do many times before, cracked the whip and found it landing directly on Lallani's back. She fell to the floor in a writhing mess, looking far too similar to a dying snake, and dodging blaster fire, Poe ducked into a hallway that was attached to the room he'd been in.

He began to sprint as he heard Lallani's shrieks of pain and the shouts and blasters of her workers who began to chase after Poe, and he cursed as soon as alarms began to blare in the facility, the hallways flashing red. He'd have to get creative to get out of here or pray that Tallie arrived in time to rescue him. He continued to race through the hallway though nobody dared bother him when they spotted the infamous silver whip in his hand. Too many had died at Lallani's hand for them to try him. Without knowing where he was going Poe continued to navigate his way through different hallways and rooms, pushing past people and dodging occasional blaster fire. He had a sinking feeling that he was making his way down, though, and that certainly could not help. The deeper underground, the harder it'd be for him to escape. Unless… unless he could find an entrance to the sewer system. It seemed that that may be the option but in order to do that he'd have to find a maintenance room of sorts and he wasn't even sure where to begin looking for that.

What he did find, however, was a dead end. A dead end that left him void of any hope and with a sinking realization he realized that Lallani would finally get what she wanted after all of these years. Still, Poe Dameron had never been one to give up or to be with a lack of ideas and so he turned to shoot the controls of the metal door of the room, causing sparks to fly, flames to begin, and the door slid shut stopping red blaster fire from entering the room. With a few moments given to him by shutting the door he glanced around the room in a panic. Fortunately enough for him it was devoid of any people but when he realized where exactly he was, a chill set into his bones and his stomach heaved to the floor.

He was in Lallani's art gallery of carbon-frozen bounties.

Throughout the room, figures frozen in carbon were hung on the walls of the room, some of their mouths open in a never-ending silent scream, some remaining stoic and calm in the face of their doom. What must've been Lallani's favorites were standing in the center of the room, all displayed about the floor as thought it was some sort of sick and twisted art galleries with magnificent illustrations and paintings rather than living beings that had drawn Lallani's interest for some reason or another. Poe took a step forward, staring at all of the frames with his jaw dropped slightly- he'd heard of the Hutt's sickening habit of entrapping their victims for eternity in carbon- hell, rumor had it that Han Solo himself had been a victim at one point- but he'd never been unfortunate enough to see it with his own eyes. The blaster fire barraging the door kept him focused, though, and he began to look about for a way out of the room.

To no avail, he noticed so such exit. No vents, no doors, nothing. Poe figured that Lallani had been wise enough to not give anybody a chance to sneak into the facility and unfreeze their companions that had been gripped by Lallani's talons and his heart began to sink. He had a sneaking suspicion that he might also suffer this fate rather than death. Some considered it to be more cruel than death itself for frozen in there you never died and thus were never granted passage to any sort of peaceful afterlife.  
  
But, that give him an idea. Of course, Poe Dameron's ideas were never exactly normal, nor were they practical. Quite frankly the entire reason that he'd risen to a commander of the Resistance in the first place was for his knack of coming up with on-the-spot solutions no matter how nervous it made General Organa.  
  
So, Poe found himself reaching for a black button on a stand attached to the wall. He had not known what the button did, and to be quite honest he did not care. He only knew that it had to do something. And if it was going to do what he thought it would, then that meant it would, at the very least, provide him with a distraction to figure out a better way to escape from the horrid position he was in. So, Poe pushed the button.

He pulled his hand away and noticed that, at once, the figures trapped inside of the brown slabs began to glow with a very faint red that almost was not visible at first. As the second ticked by and voices began to shout outside in attempts to figure out how to get by the door the red glow grew increasingly stronger from a dull red to a more vibrant and lively color. With the amount of slabs in the room Poe could feel a decent amount of heat being generated and he took a step backwards when the red began to gave way to bright patches of white and yellow light eating away at the red glow- Poe took a step backwards and shielded his eyes. It had grown far too bright for him to continue to watch as the white ate away at the red. Had Poe been watching he would have noticed the spaces where the white ate away at the red revealed skin underneath, and rather quickly, he heard the thuds of bodies falling to the floor and a plethora of groans, cries, and other intelligible alien noises as all of Lallani's victims were released from their carbon prison at last.

Poe watched with apprehension as the assortment of Lallani's victims begin to roll on the ground and cry out from the pain of the blindness and side effects that came after carbon freezing for some, those effects would never fade. If you were lucky, the process would not be too harmful to one's body but for others, it was a death sentence. For the most part, the creatures seemed to be alright and began to scramble about blindly for the room, immediately recognizing where they were but not quite understanding what had happened or why everybody had been released. As chaos began to erupt in the room, Poe searched around for anything, anything at all that could help him out- he supposed his best course of action was going to be to take them by surprise so he hurried over to the side of the door and stood with his back against the wall, trying to remain silent as to not draw attention to anybody in the room. His hand was gripping the silver handle of the whip tightly and his thumb hovered over the button that would make electricity run down its length. He was hoping and praying that this would work as carbon freezing was not cheap and he could only imagine the things Lallani would do to him now if she captured him.

He closed his eyes, praying that this plan would work- or at least give Tallie enough time to break him out of here. Perhaps she was out there now arresting Lallani and her associates-

"Hey," he heard a voice mutter from beside him in a hushed voice. He ignored the voice, likely just some scoundrel that had crossed Lallani in some way or another- some of the beings in this room that were now free were dangerous, no doubt, and Poe would like to keep them blind (quite literally) to the fact that he had Lallani's whip. "Hey," the voice said again. "You're the one that got us out of here."

Poe turned his head to see a woman standing next to him, one hand on the wall, the other rubbing her eyes and attempting to see. Poe knew that carbon freezing left human victims blind for a few hours after unfreezing and in the moment, he was glad for that. Still, he was never one to pass up a conversation with an attractive woman, and his mind pondered what she could've done to cross Lallani this bad. "Yea, and a thank you would be appropriate," Poe hissed back before turning his head to look at the door. Lallani's grunts were making quite the commotion on the other side as they worked on the door- apparently Lallani's defenses were even for too powerful for her own people.

"I can get us out of here."

That certainly caught Poe's attention and so he faced the woman once more with one eyebrow cocked. "You got caught by Lallani once, why the hell should I trust you?"

"She caught me by surprise. I can get us out of here but we have to go now," the woman hissed back. Poe gave her a quick once over.

"One problem: you can't see."

"I don't need to see," she hissed back, leaving Poe in utter and complete confusion. Perhaps she'd been blind even before but the way she was rubbing at her eyes did not suggest so- Poe glanced to the door and back at the woman. He was unsure of what to do; it was either stick with his plan and try to fight his way out of this room or listen to a stranger that he did not know that had clearly been one of Lallani's most hated people.

So, naturally, as Poe Dameron tended to do, he chose the more asinine option. He did not even have to say the words aloud before a small smile grew on her face and she beckoned for Poe to follow her. Without a word, she took off from the wall and began to dodge and duck around the other creatures now running about the room blindly, some of them taking to approaching the door and smashing it with their fists and shouting in an attempt to get out. The girl was leading him opposite of the door and Poe began to wonder what she had up her sleeve… there was no other entrances or exits. Only the door. More importantly, for the life of him he could not understand how she was so effortlessly making her way through the crowded room without the gift of eyesight but he supposed it was act now, ask questions later.

As they approached the end of the room the woman placed her fingers behind one of the now-empty brown carbon frames and she looked to Poe. "Help me." She began to pull on the frame in an effort to get it off of the wall. After a few moments of confusion and hesitation, Poe began to pry the other side of the frame and after a long and sustained groan as he pulled with all of his might, the frame began to work itself loose and began to fall forwards to the floor before landing with a deafening crash, drawing the attention of some of the creatures. That can't be good, Poe thought to himself as some of the victims began to work their way across the room to where the woman and Poe were, most likely looking for a way out of this predicament just as they were. "You gotta hurry up here before we have a whole circus coming with us," Poe told the woman as she felt along the bare wall with her hands. He wasn't too fond of the idea of leaving all of these creatures out of here and giving Lallani even more of a reason to be after his head. "Come on, let's go-"

He turned his head at the sound of metal crunching and saw the woman landing from a kick, a large metal grate from the wall kicked in and leading into a duct of some sort. His face contorted in utter confusion as he tried to decipher how this woman had just kicked in the metal in some feat of insane athleticism before ducking into the duct. "Coming?" She asked. Act now, ask later, Poe reminded himself as he ducked into the duct behind the girl. Behind him, he could hear creatures whooping as they spotted the new exit out of the room. "What about-" Poe began, but stopped short at the sound of a loud clang and turned around to see the piece of metal covering where they'd just come in.

"What the…. Who are you?" Poe shouted ahead to the girl.

"Nobody," she responded. "Come on, we have to get out of here." They now found themselves in a maze of ducts and vents with countless twists and turns and forks in the road but she kept moving forward as if she knew every inch of this place. Though Poe had grown suspicious of her and had no clue who she was he could not help but be thankful that she'd led him to an exit.

"There's a cantina and a port on the Eastern side of town. If we can get there, we can get out of here pretty quickly. My friends can help us out," Poe told her.

"And who are your friends?" She responded. Poe wasn't sure if he should answer that question truthfully; those that tangled with Lallani were criminals and the one thing that most criminals had in common was being wary of the Resistance.

"Just friends. Look, do you want a quick ride out of here or not?" Poe responded. His back began to ache as they continued to duck and scurry through the ducts in the building.  
  
"I can handle myself fine, thank you."

"Clearly. I didn't just save your ass or anything," Poe sarcastically responded. She did not say anything. Poe supposed he could get her into the X-wing with him- it would be a tight fit, and it would not be comfortable, but it had been done before. They continued to silently make their way through the maze of metal before reaching a dead end.

"Oh, good job-" Poe began before she kicked her way through the metal grate and shutting Poe up once more. On the other side of the metal, passerby's on the street stared at them with a strange glance but continued onto their business, nobody paying too much mind in the throng of people on the street- the woman and Poe ducked out of the vent into the street and he smiled in relief at the sight of the crowded market street lined with stalls. The woman closed her unseeing eyes and took a deep breath, breathing fresh air for the first time in- well, Poe didn't know how long, and neither did she. She took in the scents from the food vendors, the people on the planet, the smell of oil and gas from all of the ports in the city- everything. She did not know how long she'd been frozen for but one thing was for sure: it was never going to happen again.


	3. Together

"An _x-wing?"_ She announced incredulously as her and Poe skidded to a stop in the port. They had not stopped running since they'd made their way out of the fortress, preferring speed over stealth- it was impossible to be invisible and hidden on Lallani's planet so it was the only option that they had had. At the same time, Tallissan and the rest of the squadron began to run over to Poe with concerned looks on their faces and glancing at the odd woman that had arrived with Poe.

"Thanks for coming for help, Tal," Poe angrily said. He was rather irritated to find that they were still here, if not slightly relieved that it made things easier. "I could've used you guys back there."  
  
"We didn't know where they'd taken you- the General ordered us to wait here while they found out where you were," Tallissan responded uneasily.

"I would've came for you, and you know it-" Poe began, pointing a finger at the pilot. Meanwhile, the woman that had been with Poe was rubbing her eyes, and for the first time since she'd been unfrozen, light began to poke through her vision. It wasn't much but she could make out blurry objects around her- the people, the ships, but the colors and exact identities of what they were were invisible to her vision. But not invisible to her completely. Still, she could not make out what any of this meant- she began to fear how long it had been since she was frozen.

"Um, guys?" A pilot said uneasily. They all glanced to the entrance of the port where two of Lallani's grunts entered with blasters, looking around the port for any sight of Poe and finding an entire Resistance squadron.

"Yea, we gotta go! We gotta get out of here, let's go!" Poe shouted. "Black squadron, reassemble at home!" He shouted out before turning and sprinting towards his own ship. With no other options and another fate with Lallani chasing after her, she quickly turned foot and followed Poe. "Beebee, we gotta go! Let's go!" The woman heard a droid chirp in confusion and retort at Poe rather sassily before retreating back to underneath the ship to get in. Poe began to climb up the ladder before he called down to the woman standing apprehensively at the bottom. "It'll be a tight fit, but it's now or never!"

"I'm not coming in there-"

"Fine, tell that to Lallani!" Poe shouted down. The woman stood for a few moments with her arms crossed, glancing between the blurry shape of the ship and the figures sprinting towards the squadron with blasters fired.

He was right. She didn't have any other options in this moment. With a heavy sigh, she reached forward and began to climb the ladder into the pit of the X-wing. Poe had already taken a seat and was rapidly flipping switches and checking things for the flight though he was most certainly skipping steps. He was shouting instructions and questions to his small droid in the back who continued to beep back indignantly though obeying all of Poe's commands. When he spotted the woman at the top of the ladder, he grinned and paused to pat on his lap.

"It's gonna be a long ride but we don't have time to make it comfy," Poe said with a smirk on his face. The woman shook her head and opened her mouth to refuse but at that moment blaster fire hit the roof of the raised cockpit just above her head and her face paled. Without question, she slid into the cockpit and Poe grunted while she landed on his lap rather ungracefully. Now barely able to move, Poe lowered the roof of the cockpit only trapping them further. Around them, X-wings had begun to lift off of the ground and head out of the port while Poe was just beginning to lift off of the ground, barely done with his flight prechecks. Now, blaster fire began to barrage his ship from all around and Poe lifted out of the port, before turning around and heading up into the sky. To their escape. Still, the woman's stomach churned. She knew what was coming.

"On your left," she told him. But, he had already seen the ship coming to flank his left side and twisted the X-wing in a maneuver that would've thrown the woman against the roof had she not wrapped her arms around Poe's neck.

"We will not speak of this," the woman hissed. Poe smirked as he shot at the ship with blaster fire and reduced it to a ball of flames in seconds.

"You might not," he responded. "Beebee, are we ready to jump?" The droid chirped back a rather annoyed no, while the woman glanced out of the window. Her sight was now coming back better and better by the second and though she could not make it out well she knew well enough that the three ships entering the atmosphere were TIE fighters. "Well, WE GOTTA BE!" Poe shouted back to the droid. The droid beeped the equivalent of a groan before telling Poe off and the two began to squabble back and forth while the TIES approached.

"You guys have to figure out something soon-" the woman began. The TIES had begun to shoot at them but Poe expertly weaved through the blaster fire and the woman could not help but be impressed- a rather impressive pilot, and from what she'd seen thus far, not really anything she'd seen before. She'd only seen one person in the galaxy fly like this, and that was-

"BEEBEE!" Poe shouted just as the ship burst into lightspeed, crashing through one of the TIEs and leaving it in pieces. Poe shouted in relief as the familiar look of the lightspeed portal filled their surroundings, leaving a relaxing figure of white stars among the blackness of space as the X-wing thrummed. "Beebee, take us home."

The woman removed her arms from Poe's neck and leaned against the side of the X-wing, leaning her head back and crossing her arms in relief. Her eyesight had come back completely now and she watched as the pilot did the same. It was only then that they remembered they had not gotten each other's names, and Poe remembered that he needed to find out who this woman was.

"Where is home?" The woman questioned in a relieved, airy voice.

"You'll see," Poe told her. She rolled her eyes.

"You can drop me off at the next planet-"

"No can do. Sorry, can't take anymore chances like that," Poe told her, crossing his arms.

"How many enemies do you have that you have to take chances like that often?" The woman asked, raising her eyebrows.

"A lot of people out there want my head."

"What's your name, anyways?" She inquired.

"Poe. Poe Dameron. And you?" He inquired. She cocked her head in thought before responding.

"Kaia."

"Well, Kaia, I don't know how to repay you but when we get back I'm sure my General will be willing to give you a generous amount of credits."

"And who exactly is your general?"

Now, Poe was a bit miffed. He had considered himself to be a rather known name throughout the galaxy and he supposed, as smart as this woman seemed, that she would've at least figured out that he was from the Resistance. Still, he took the blow to his ego in stride. "The General… of the Resistance?"

Now Kaia chuckled. "What is that, some off-brand Rebellion?"

At first, Poe went to laugh as he was entirely convinced that she was kidding. Surely everybody in the galaxy _had_ to have known about the Resistance? It was only until he saw the puzzled look on her face that his smile faded and the gears started to turn in his head. He came to a realization that made him quite nervous- "Kaia, what year was it when they froze you?"

Kaia froze at the question. Poe had stated it like it was something asinine and insane- she began to question how long Lallani had truly had her imprisoned for. "Nearly two years after the fall of the Republic," she said softly.

Poe grinded his teeth together and he furrowed his brows while his mind worked out the kinks; she'd been frozen for nearly 47 years. 47 years the galaxy had continued to swim on while she remained drowning in the past. "Why, what year is it now?" Kaia asked, raising an eyebrow. She could feel Poe's apprehension and anxiety and she already knew that the answer was not what she was going to want to hear, that a great deal of people she'd known in the past would be dead by now.

"The Empire was destroyed thirty years ago. They reigned for 17 years after Lallani must've found you- Kaia, that's 47 years."

Much to Poe's surprise, Kaia did not seem at all surprised. She let out a sigh and leaned her head backwards once more.

"Alright. And where is the galaxy now?"

Poe didn't even know what to say. He was quite literally speaking to a fossil from the past, a memory, a remnant- as far as he knew not even the general had been old enough to form memories at that point, and here she was, young as a pup and still breathing? His mind began to race as he thought of the implications… and, advantages of that. He was sure that Leia could find a use for her, or at least wean some valuable information out of her for Resistance or personal use, whatever it may be.

"There's a lot to cover in 47 years, I'll tell you that," Poe said with an anxious sigh.

"And we've got _lots_ of time."

* * *

The ship broke from lightspeed just as Poe had been covering the middle of the Galactic Wars against the Empire and the Rebellion, emerging from their flight above a planet heavily blanketed in forest trees and jungle. Kaia glanced over the planet not particularly marveled by the greenery or natural beauty of the planet. She'd seen planets like this all over the galaxy and much more; nothing really surprised her anymore. If anything she was entirely surprised that the Resistance base was invisible to the eye from the sky, and so when Poe began to guide the X-wing towards the ground she grow slightly worried only for the fact that it seemed as though the Resistance was based in trees. "You know where you're going?" She teased. During their flight they'd warmed up to each other for quite a bit. They had to, considering they were squished against each other in the seemingly tiny cockpit.

"You doubt me?" Poe retorted, guiding them closer and closer to the ground until the base started to become visible to Kaia. There were several X-wings ahead of them being guided into the hangar hidden underneath the side of a hill while others jumped out of lightspeed from behind them. Kaia looked over the ground at the variety of people and aliens alike in orange jumpsuits, hopping into ships, jumping out, or guiding ships into the hangar. She was rather surprised at the amount of activity. As far as she remembered, during her time the Rebellion had been incredibly secretive and she didn't think they'd ever dare all congregate in one place like this. Things changed, though. They always did. She was still surprised that the Empire had been taken down, and most of all, she was surprised that Palpatine and Vader had fallen. From the moment they'd risen to power she hadn't been sure they ever would've been stopped.

As Poe began to get close to the ground and glide forward into the safety of the hangar, Kaia grew anxious. She wasn't going to stay with the Resistance, she could not. Poe had promised her that the General would give her a ship and credits to start somewhere new. Somewhere invisible to Lallani, for now, for Kaia was sure the bounty on her head would have people from all over the galaxy streaming to her.

Poe glanced at Kaia. He did not want her to run at first sight; from what it seemed, she could be invaluable to the Resistance. She had not broken and had not divulged a single secret of her past to Poe yet, but he was determined to get to know more about her enigmatic past and find out how exactly she'd gotten on Lallani's bad side. He began the landing sequence and swiftly landed on the ground of the hangar with a thud while technicians began to approach his ship and wave at Poe. Both Kaia and Poe could see everybody in the hangar staring at the cockpit of his X-wing crammed with two people. Not all of them could say they were surprised that Poe Dameron had returned with a female but both Poe and Kaia set upon ignoring the prying eyes as the roof opened with a hiss. The moment it did, Kaia stood up and without waiting for a technician to get a ladder to the cockpit, she leaped down from the top of the cockpit, landing in a crouch on two feet, one hand steadying her on the ground. She sighed and stood up straight only to find a plethora of eyes on the unfamiliar face. They were used to newcomers, but the circumstances Kaia had come in had been quite… unusual.

Behind Kaia, Poe made his way hastily down the ladder that had finally been propped up. "Always gotta outdo me, huh?" Poe joked, smiling and waving at those greeting him in the hangar.  
  
"It's about time you're back, man!" A voice called out from behind Poe. Both Poe and Kaia turned only for a figure to envelop Poe in a deep hug.  
  
"Finn," Poe greeted. Kaia's eyes softened. The two appeared to be friends. Once they pulled away from each other, the new man name Finn glanced at Kaia and then glanced back at Poe.

"New recruit?" Finn inquired.

"No," Kaia said, but at the same time, Poe replied, "Yes," with a mischievous grin on his face. Finn raised a curious eyebrow but did not further press the issue and instead extended his hand to Kaia. Kaia reached forward and gripped his arm. He was warm. Welcoming. Finn was kind, she could tell that immediately. He was pure of heart. "Welcome to D'Qar, the _beautiful_ home of the Resistance," Finn said, shaking Kaia's hand heartily.

"Thanks, but I was promised a ride," Kaia said. Finn's heart fell a little; he would've at least liked to meet the mysterious stranger before she was so quick to leave. He was a firm believer that nobody came to the Resistance by accident. If they ended up here, it was always meant to be.

"C'mon, let's take you to Leia," Poe said, putting his hand on her shoulder. Finn glanced at Poe before silently deciding he wanted to tag along on this little expedition. For a newcomer to join the Resistance was common but for a newcomer to go directly to the general… well, Finn knew that that wasn't something that happened very often and that this woman must've been important to grant an immediate introduction to Leia.

As Poe guided Kaia through the base, they were passed by a plethora of Resistance members who all excitedly greeted the trio. They did not even know Kaia yet they smiled brightly and offered greetings as though they'd known her her entire life. It was certainly a change of pace from where she'd last been in her life, that's for certain. Still, something inside of her felt uncomfortable and out of place and she wanted nothing more than to get out of this place, even if she'd come to enjoy Poe's company quite a lot. He was certainly charming and she'd always admired people with his level of wit and intellect and piloting skills. Though a man was nothing to keep her anchored anywhere. She let her will and the Force guide her.

At some point or another they seemed to have turned into a control room of sorts. Kaia was surprised to see that there had not even been any king of sign of a guard outside of the room but she supposed that that must have not been needed here. In this room, there were people strung about a variety of monitors and projections and radios, all talking to each other and guiding Resistance members off of D'Qar. Kaia was a little surprised at the haphazard organization of the room and could not help but feel that the aura was messy and disorganized. Though the Rebellion had been in its infant years the last she'd been conscious, she'd always gotten the notion that the covert organization was incredibly organized with a clear goal in mind. This just seemed… different.

But, there was something more important. Something that completely caught her off guard and nearly caused her to collapse to her knees. Something she had not felt for _years_ even before she'd been sentenced to a horrible fate by Lallani. Something she had not expected, something that she did not know Poe Dameron even knew the _existence_ of. As Kaia faced the old woman standing before her, she only saw that the woman's face was just as shocked as Kaia was. Anxiety and fright filled Kaia's body and her blood ran cold.

"Who _are_ you?"


	4. Revelations

The General had sat Kaia down on a box opposite of her in an empty storage room that had branched off of the control room. With Poe's and Finn's insistence they "guarded" the door from the inside but they only wanted to eavesdrop. Neither Kaia or Leia cared. They only cared about each other.

"Who are you?" Leia repeated.

"A memory," Kaia said in a quiet tone, nearly a whisper. Leia did not respond. She was not going to press the girl. Instead, she just continued to stare at her with a warm smile on her face, relying on the kindness in her eyes to goad Kaia into telling the truth. Telling her story. "One that should've been buried long ago."

"I've found that memories are what make us human," Leia replied. She leaned forward and clasped Kaia's hands in hers. Kaia lifted her eyes to meet Leia. Something about Leia felt off, it felt far more familiar than it should have but Kaia could not quite place her finger on the feeling.

"And the true nature of humans should remain hidden," Kaia murmured. Leia chuckled.

"Kaia. What you say will not leave this room if that is your wish," Leia said, glancing at Finn and Poe over Kaia's shoulder. They both averted their gaze and comedically looked about the room as though they had not heard what Leia had said. Of course, they'd abide by her wishes but Leia was insinuating that they would allow whatever was spoken in this room to leave. "I know what you are. Or, a part of what you are. Dear, I can feel it and I know you felt me too. That part of the Force does not come by accident. It comes by training."

Poe and Finn glanced at each other. They were not too unfamiliar with the Force; it had been what Leia was currently training Rey with, and why Rey was out seeking the final piece to the map that would lead to Luke Skywalker. Rey wanted to learn the Force but Leia was too afraid that she would not be enough. Poe and Finn had always been skeptical of it but now… now Kaia was making them question everything that they had thought been true.

"You're right," Kaia began. "I do know the Force. I am a servant of the Force."

"A Jedi?" Leia quietly questioned. Kaia shook her head and looked to the ground.

"Once, I was. But I left that path long ago," Kaia choked out. "I am a ghost of a Jedi- but the Force I still serve."

"You left the Jedi?" Leia questioned. She did not know a single thing about this girl that Poe had brought- one moment they'd been approaching her and the next Kaia and Leia had touched through the Force and immediately recognized the other as a Force user. Now they were sitting in an abandoned storage room while Leia tried to deal with the fact that her brother may not have been the last Jedi after all. Kaia slowly nodded.

"I was taken in by Master Windu as a child after my parents were killed by Separatist supporters. He knew that I was sensitive right away," she said softly. Leia's mind was reeling with the names- she'd read of Master Windu and the Force ghost of Yoda and Obi-wan had often talked about the Jedi Master of the old Jedi Council but to have a living being directly in front of her from the Jedi… she did not know how this was possible. She had so, so many questions but she was wise enough to understand that the girl likely just needed time to talk about it. Still, something inside of the girl spurred her to continue on. She could feel within the Force that it was the right thing to do in this moment. "I trained within the Jedi Order and when I became a Padawan I trained underneath the Master Obi-Wan Kenobi after his Padawan graduated into a Knight. Obi-wan was kind, and he was just- he was the closest thing to the kind of Jedi I wanted to be. But even he was wrong- all of the Jedi were. I could not stay. They had grown too corrupt, too political- they did not serve the Force any longer, they served the Republic. They lost sight of what the Jedi truly meant. I had to go."

"Obi-Wan was your Master?" Leia said in a tone of disbelief. Kaia nodded in confusion.

"Yes." Leia gulped. If Obi-wan was her Master…

"Kaia… did you know Anakin Skywalker?" Leia inquired softly. Kaia chuckled.

"Everybody knew Anakin. He was a hero. He… he was strong. The best of us," her face fell. "But the Jedi were murdered and Obi-wan and Anakin died with the rest of them. I was by myself the day the Jedi were slaughtered but through the Force, I could feel it, and it was the worst pain I've ever felt in my life. And I… I'll never forgive myself. I should have fallen beside them."

Leia wasn't even sure what to say. She was in awe. The girl in front of her had trained underneath Obi-Wan, had known Anakin yet the two Force ghosts had never thought to mention it to her or Luke. Her existence had gone unknown which was why Leia had to question if the girl was telling the truth but in her heart, Leia could feel that it was true. That she'd been a Jedi. "Anakin…." Leia began, but her voice trailed off. Kaia squeezed her hands slightly.

"Anakin was Luke and I's father. Anakin and Padme Amidala."

It was at that point that Kaia found her blood running cold with shock. Her body went numb and her mind went blank at the revelation. Anakin had always been on the rebellious side but he had been so loyal to the Jedi! Kaia would never forget that about him. "Impossible," Kaia whispered. Leia shook her head.

"It's not. Before Anakin… before he died and Vader took his place Padme was with child. With me and Luke. The Organa's raised me on Alderaan and Obi-Wan took Luke to our family on Tatooine." After Leia spoke, Kaia was in for yet another shock. Too many to handle; in fact, she began to grow quite overloaded and stood up from where she'd been sitting. This was too much for her to comprehend in one day; she had to get out of here to meditate somewhere. She released Leia's hand and immediately turned from where she'd been sitting and began to make her way towards the door but Poe stepped in front of the door. "Kaia…."

"Let me out of here," Kaia said. She needed fresh air; she needed to breathe. Anakin had been like a brother to her. Anakin and Ahsoka both… and to hear that the infamous Darth Vader had been Anakin himself? The more Kaia thought about it the more it made sense; Anakin was one of the strongest Jedi the order had ever seen, if not the strongest, and the Sith lord Darth Vader menaced the galaxy even in the mere two years she'd been witness to his reign. Still, she had never thought that Anakin could've fallen. And her master… Obi-wan was alive? Or he'd survived the massacre at the very least. No; Kaia could not handle this. She should have been there, with them. She should've been with Ahsoka, she could've tried to help Anakin from falling. In the name of the Force, not the Jedi. But it was too late for that, and Kaia wasn't sure how she felt so she needed to meditate on it.

"Kaia, I think you should stay-" Poe said, placing a hand on her shoulder but she shoved his arm to the side.

"No. Poe, let me out."

"I'm afraid we only take orders from the general," Finn butt in, sliding in beside Poe and blocking the door even more. Kaia opened her mouth to talk them into moving but from behind her, she heard Leia speak.

"Boys. Let her be."

Finn and Poe glanced at each other before sighing uneasily and stepping to the side. The moment she had a sliver of a pathway Kaia slid in between them and the door slid open, leaving her to run out into the control room where she was met with stares. Ordinarily she would not have minded but she just needed to be alone right now in this moment, she needed to have some time to connect with the Force and ponder what all of this meant. She rushed through the control room at a brisk pace before turning into the hallway. The friendly figures passing by her were simply blurs in her peripheral, meek-minded little things that would never quite understand the chaos running through her head. To them, the Empire and the Jedi Order were stuff of legends, of bedtime stories but to her… it was reality. She'd only left the Order three years ago, just after being granted the title of a Jedi Knight.

She raced through the hallways allowing her intuition to guide her to a quiet place to find peace before she turned and found herself facing an open exit that led outside. The warm amber tone of the sun signified that it was setting and she immediately followed the light to the outside of the base. She followed a small gravel path that winded along the side of the base, head in a blur until she came across a sharp outcropping above the jungle and she realized how incredibly and utterly exhausted she was. The carbon-freezing had taken a lot of juice out of her and she'd been running on adrenalin and fumes for the entirety of the day. Her body was about to shut down, so she found herself sitting down rather abruptly and dangling her feet over the cliff.

She was in awe. Everything she'd known… she had wanted to be like Anakin. In her eyes he had been the perfect warrior of the Force, his only downfall being too attached to the Order itself. She remembered how she'd begged and begged Ahsoka and Anakin to follow her in leaving the order. She hadn't asked Obi-wan; she loved him too much to ask him to do something like that. The nights she'd spent alone after she'd left, weeping over the life she had left behind. The predicaments she had gotten herself into that could have been solved with a lightsaber had it not been confiscated by Master Windu.

To learn that Anakin had fallen into the dark and become one of the most ferocious Sith lords the galaxy had seen? She had been able to see that Palpatine was filled with evil the entire time but Anakin? The revelation had hit her like a truck. And the fact that he had betrayed the Jedi Order and sired children with Padme. Anakin's children were far older than her. She should've died with the rest of the Jedi. Or at the very least, she could have found Obi-wan and Luke. She owed him that. But instead, she had to get on the wrong side of a crime lord and get herself imprisoned, only to be released to a time where she was forgotten, her name was lost, and everything she stood for was nothing but myths and legends.

"I used to feel that way too, you know," she heard a voice from beside her. Leia must have approached so silently and she took a sit next to Kaia on the cliff. Kaia shook her head. She was surprised no tears were falling but she supposed that her mind was simply too overwhelmed to weep. So, she talked. Talked to the only person that could even come close to understanding the pain she was feeling.

"Feel how?"

"Hopeless," Leia responded. Kaia chuckled and shrugged.

"That does not describe it."

And so, they fell into a silence, the both of them gazing at the sun set over the jungle as creatures fell asleep and others woke up for the night. Kaia found beauty in the simple life of the creatures that inhabited the planet. They were to wake up, find food, find a mate, and find a place to rest for the night so they would not get eaten. They did not have to worry about politics, or crime lords, or the Jedi or the Sith or how two people were going to squeeze into an x-wing for a several hour ride. They just lived. After Kaia had left the Jedi that's what she'd wanted to do. Live through the Force. But it had not been so simple, and she doubted it ever would be. From here, Kaia had no idea where to go.

But she knew that it would have to be far, far away from here. As if she could read her mind- Kaia stopped herself. Leia likely was reading her mind. Kaia knew that Leia was strong in the Force, it's the reason she had sensed her so strongly. Besides, being the child of Anakin would've meant an overwhelming connection with the Force.

"There is hope. There's always hope," Leia said gently. "Here there is no lack of hope-"  
  
"I can't stay here," Kaia said, shaking her head. "I have to leave. I should have never come here."

"The Force works in funny ways, doesn't it?" Leia replied without skipping a beat. "You were meant to be here, Kaia. One way or another. I can feel it."

Kaia did not answer.

"…there is a girl here, Rey. She is strong in the Force, one of the strongest there has been but she needs a teacher. A teacher that can do her justice. She needs to train as a Jedi- if you can help Rey find Luke, she can grow into what she needs to become and… there is a way to speak to Obi-wan."

"Obi-wan is dead?" Kaia said. Now, she could feel her eyes filing with water. Obi-wan had been like a father to her and if he'd been alive after the slaughter, the entire time- she would never forget how he blamed himself when Kaia told him she was leaving the Jedi. She had never forgiven herself for putting him through those feelings without making up for it before he was killed. But apparently, he had not been killed.  
  
"You know, kid, you've missed a lot over the years. If you stay, I'd be more than happy to show you everything," Leia said.

Kaia sat in silence for a moment before shaking her head once more.

"No. I must go back to the shadows. It is where I belong."

"You belong here, helping Rey find Luke, helping to rebuild the Jedi Order-"

"The Jedi were scourged and it is for the better. They should not return. The return of the Jedi will only throw the Force into disarray once more."

"The Force is already in disarray with two Sith Lords and a pack of Sithlings on the loose in the galaxy," Leia whispered. She closed her eyes for just a moment too see flashes of brown eyes and a mess of curly black hair flash through her vision, the laugh that brought warmth to her chest, the light he had brought into everyone's lives… She still clung to that vision of him. She was the only one to believe that Ben Solo was still hiding somewhere deep inside of Kylo Ren. There were even days that Han seemed to forget that Ben had not quite died- Leia could feel him. Feel him crying out from somewhere deep inside that monster.

"Sith?" Kaia said incredulously, turning to stare at Leia. Leia nodded.

"Sith or dark side users; they're just as bad. And if they find Luke before we do I'm afraid things may be even worse than we thought. But now that you are here…."

Kaia looked back over the jungle. The tip of the sun was barely visible over the trees now, the blanket of night beginning to follow the disappearance of the star that the planet orbited. She had not felt this conflicted since the day she had chosen to leave the Order. The day she chose to hand her lightsaber over to Master Windu and depart Coruscant for the rest of her life, living in the shadows, hidden. She did not know what to do and she did not feel a clear feeling in her heart on what direction to choose. So, she closed her eyes and reached out through the Force, searched and searched for what felt like hours and hours but in reality was only seconds. All of the trails and paths she followed in the murky web of the Force throughout the galaxy..

They all led here. That only meant one thing: her fate was to stay here as much as she did not want to.


	5. First Steps

The hangar had fallen into a quietness that only came about in the wee hours of calm nights in the Resistance base. For the first night in quite some time there was no need for an emergency scramble of squadrons, no covert missions heading out under the cover of night. Poe had found himself underneath his X-wing alone while music played softly from the stereo he had placed on the floor next to him as he rested his back on the cool cement and worked in a rhythm to make necessary repairs on his ship. As a commander he had entire crews of Resistance mechanics and droids to work on his ship but he liked to do it himself, if he had time. It distracted him from things, it was relaxing. He could melt away into a world of metal and oil and gas and forget about the death and chaos reigning supreme in the galaxy, the madman who was a shell of his best friend on a murderous and spiteful rampage-

"It's a bit late, isn't it?" A familiar voice piped up from beside of the X-wing. Poe removed his hands from the tangle of burnt metal and slid himself out from underneath his ship to find himself looking up at a grinning young women with neat black buns, leaning against his ship with her arms crossed.

"You could say the same thing for yourself," he quickly quipped back. Out of curiosity, Beebee rolled himself out from underneath the ship (much to Poe's dismay) and began to chirp excitedly at the sight of his friend Rey. "Why are you out so late?"

"Just… going for a walk." Rey shifted against the side of the ship and averted her gaze from Poe. He'd gotten to know her quite well in the past few weeks and he'd come to like her. She was one of the only people in this entire godforsaken base that truly challenged his own level of sarcasm and intensity. So, he could tell that something was distracting her, and he had a feeling that he knew exactly what it was.

"Did you meet her?" Poe said in a low voice. Rey looked up hesitantly before shaking her head.

"For a moment. Leia wanted to get her situated," Rey explained. Poe nodded and then sat up from where he'd been lying down on the ground in thought. He had to admit that he was rather pleased for some odd reason when he had heard that Kaia had chosen to stay with the Resistance. In the very short time he had known her he'd taken quite the liking to her, and at the end of the day, her presence only helped their odds in the war against the Resistance. That is, if she was truly willing to help rebuild the Jedi, or at least help Rey find Luke Skywalker. It seemed as though Rey had read his mind when she'd chosen to speak again.

"Poe, do you really think that she is going to help us? A real life, actual Jedi?"

Poe pursed his lips. "I don't know, Rey. We can only hope that the answer is yes, I guess."

"Well, anyways, get to bed soon. I expect we have a long road ahead of us and I know you aren't going to be able to keep your nose out of it," Rey quickly said, a smile growing on her face. Poe lightly punched her lag playfully and shook his head. But, she was right, and the both of them knew it. For different reasons, though. Poe wanted to follow this woman, and he wanted to see where she was going to go. He did not know why. It was just… a feeling.

* * *

Kaia's sleep had been light and restless, full of images and flashes of herself and Obi-wan, Anakin and Ahsoka. She had tossed and turned all night in remembrance of walking away from them all. She did not regret it, but there was a piece of her that still pondered over what could have been. When the sun had finally risen high enough for her to deem it alright to wake up, she rose from her bed feeling not at all rested and restless all at the same time. There was a long path ahead of her, if she were to do with the Force was asking her to do. If she were to help take down this new Sith Order that was being formed somewhere out there in the depths of the galaxy.

Kaia emerged from her room in the same clothing she'd arrived in, the same clothing she had been frozen in years and years ago. She glanced both ways through the hallways of the dormitories and was only greeted by shy and tired smiles from Resistance members passing by, offering her swift nods and hellos. She did not know her way through the maze of hallways but she could feel the girl, Rey, with Leia somewhere nearby. Leia had been right. Rey had such an intense and raw power with the Force, power that Kaia had not felt in many beings, even within the entire Jedi Order. Anakin and a few of the Jedi Masters had emanated this sort of power, but even then that had been fully trained Jedi. From the snippets she had heard about Rey, she was completely untrained. This was raw skill. Whatever that meant, she did not know, and it worried her. Still, Kaia refused to train her under Jedi teachings. She would teach her in the ways of the Force, that is all.

When she had made her way to Rey and Leia she was surprised to find them seated around a table in a room with a large, open window overlooking the jungle. They were not alone. Poe and Finn sat at the table with them and all four pairs of eyes turned to look at her as she entered the room. "Good morning," Leia greeted. Rey shifted nervously in her seat and all of a sudden felt incredibly too out of place and awkward for this. Poe leaned back in his chair as he watched Kaia approach the table. "Hey Kaia."

"Good morning, Poe. Finn. What's on the agenda for today?" She asked with a sigh, taking a seat in the empty chair between Leia and Poe. She still could not believe that she had agreed to stay here, to do this. She had no clue what this path had in store for her but it was what the Force wanted, and Kaia was devoted to serving the Force. She had to listen to it. Especially now. Where else was she to go? A life in bounty hunting would be difficult now that Lallani was on the hunt for her. She'd gotten quite used to the lifestyle after she'd left the Jedi but it was no longer an option.

"Well… we were going to ask you that same question," Leia responded with a small and quiet smile on her face. Kaia frowned slightly and furrowed her brows. She was rather unsure of what the next move was going to be. She had hoped to reach out to Luke through the Force and try to contact him, or, at the very least, feel her way to wherever he was. But, nobody could find him, not even the Sith that were searching for him. She was afraid that he might have cut himself off from the Force as a defense mechanism, but even then, if she reached out with enough intensity he may hear her. Or, she very well may be able to catch a glimpse of where he was.

Still, there was one thing that Kaia needed to start this all. One thing she needed if she wanted to train Rey to be effective against the Sith.

"I need to build a lightsaber," Kaia announced. Everybody at the table glanced around at each other. Leia looked at Kaia before hesitantly speaking.

"That… takes months." Leia was familiar with the process from when she had made her own lightsaber all of those years ago. She had had to meditate on her kyber crystal for months and months on end before she was able to use it in a lightsaber. With the growing power of the First Order, Leia was not sure that they had the time to wait for Kaia to do that. But, as always, Kaia had her surprises.

"I know. That is why I need to find an already established crystal," Kaia explained.

"An already established crystal?" Finn asked, raising an eyebrow.

"There are several throughout the galaxy, though hidden. They are incredibly powerful and some such crystals have been passed down amongst Jedi for generations," Kaia explained.  
  
"And you.…you think you could find one of these?" Rey inquired.

"Perhaps. But I have a feeling that somebody in this room may have a deeper network to locate one than I do," Kaia said. Everybody's eyes fell on Poe now and he held his hands up defensively.

"Run spice a few times and suddenly you're the kingpin of a criminal network, I swear," Poe sarcastically said. After a few moments and no laughter, he sighed. "But I suppose I can put the feelers out for you." Kaia pursed her lips. She was almost afraid that that would take too long but she wasn't sure what other option she had. So many things had changed in the past thirty years; the galaxy was nearly unrecognizable. There was no telling where the crystals of those who'd fallen during Order 66 were now. Even before she'd been frozen she knew that established Kyber crystals would have been an absolute nightmare to track down.

"And what can we do until then?" Rey asked. She glanced hesitantly at Kaia. She was eager to begin to learn the ways of the Force and train as a Jedi but the girl before her was intimidating, a relic of the past, a broken off piece of a fossil so grand and only heard of in tales and legends. It frightened her. She remembered how powerful she had felt wielding the Force against Kylo Ren when he had imprisoned her, the frightening allure of the dark side when Ren spoke of training her… it frightened her. So she was glad that Kaia had arrived to make sense of things and help Rey out of the predicament she'd found herself in.

"We train."

* * *

Poe and Finn sat inside of their speeder nearby, doing a rather lousy job of keeping guard while they watched Kaia instruct Rey. They'd been expecting… well, of that they were not sure but certainly things more exciting than Kaia murmuring things to Rey while Rey's eyes were closed. Occasionally, the air grew still around all of them and there was a strange feeling in the air, rocks even levitating off of the ground at times, but for the most part, Kaia was leading Rey through a guided meditation of sorts. "So much for being a Jedi," Finn murmured to Poe, just out of earshot of the girls.

"I don't think that Kaia wants Rey to be a Jedi," Poe quickly shot back. He lazily leaned back in the speeder and quietly thought to himself how he wished he'd remained back at the base instead of allowing himself to be dragged out into the middle of the jungle out of curiosity. Leia had dug a few contraptions out of the dusty depths of the Millennium Falcon for Kaia and Rey to use with the expectation of giving Poe a chore to take up his afternoon, but it had taken him a mere twenty minutes of tinkering with the machines to get them up and running once more. Finn glanced at Poe with a raised eyebrow now.

"Sorry, I didn't know that you were an expert on the Force-"

"Well, come on Finn, do you even listen? I told you, she left the Jedi. I don't think she wants to put herself back into their shoes just to train Rey," Poe explained.

"Then what's she doing?"

"Just teaching her… the Force, I guess? I don't know how that stuff works," Poe quickly replied. Finn murmured a snarky retort under his breath and continued to shine his blaster that had been scuffed far too much over the course of the past few weeks. Poe continued to watch Kaia and Rey. He'd come to like Rey very much since Finn had brought her back from the First Order. At first, Poe had really not believed that a Stormtrooper rebelled against the First Order and escaped with a force-sensitive scavenger that had caught the attention of Ren, and especially found it hard to believe when the both of them had revealed that neither of them had ever piloted a ship before. But, it was the luckiest thing to ever happen to him. The two of them filled Poe's heart in a way that nobody had since all those years ago when his best friend had abandoned him for a life of cruelty and darkness. Since Ben Solo had died.

Poe would never stop being grateful for Finn and Rey. That was why he was so, so incredibly concerned with the infatuation that Ren seemed to have for Rey. Ben Solo might've been dead but his intelligence and determination had been too strong of traits to not carry over to Ren. Rey had convinced the rest of them that Ren had not been bothering her but Poe could see past that. He knew that Leia could too. There was something deeper bothering her. And Kaia…. It was almost as though the stars themselves had sent her. Just as things were getting bad, just as he saw Rey get more and more conflicted, Kaia was brought into their lives. He watched her with a fascinating curiosity; she had been a Jedi, once. In the Jedi Order, the same Jedi Order that got wiped out a mere year after she left by Order 66, executed by the same man who managed to convince the entire galaxy that the Jedi had been traitors.

He was just glad that Rey had finally met someone like her… in a good way.

Kaia was unknowingly mirroring Poe's sentiments. To Kaia, it was easy to recognize the awakening of the Force within an individual. If a child was raised by the Jedi from a young enough age, there was never a certain "moment" in time where the individual became united with the Force- it was a gradual reunion, of sorts. They were raised with it and it was engrained in a part of who they were. In people like Rey, of course, it was like a shock to the nervous system- especially considering that it was jump started by another person. A Sith. Kaia knew there was something between Rey and the Sith, but there were still some things that Rey was managing to hide decently enough and it was not Kaia's place to pry into the crevices of her mind.

Sitting with Rey in front of her, the both of them meditating and Kaia monitoring Rey's impressive connection with the Force, she found herself becoming unfocused and her connection growing hazy- she could not believe she was doing this. She swore that she'd never return to the Jedi Order or to their ways, and while she intended to only train Rey in the Force and not in the ways of the Jedi shoe could not help but feel as though that was the path she was going to lead Rey down. After all, they were opposing the Sith, were they not? The sole reason Kaia had agreed to this is to help try and retain some sort of balance in the Force.

"That's enough for today," Kaia quickly snapped, opening her eyes. Rey opened her eyes and met Kaia's with a slight frown on her face, clearly disappointed for ending. The girl was eager to learn and quick to accomplish what Kaia had asked of her, but Kaia could continue no longer. "We can start again at dawn."

As the two girls stood up and looked towards the speeder where Poe had already started the engine and Finn set his blaster in a safer position and pausing his polishing, Rey looked to Kaia. "Is everything alright, Master-"

"Stars, not the Master," Kaia scoffed. "But yes, everything is alright. I just… it'll take a few days to get back into the swing of things again."


	6. Beginnings

When they arrived back to the Resistance base, there had been many eyes on them and even a few claps at the return of the two that many were dubbing "The Jedi", much to Kaia's annoyance. It had barely been a day since Poe had recovered her from her prison and she found herself already desiring to slink back into the shadows, away from view and away from sight, one with the Force. Far, far away from the Jedi, far, far away from the Sith and simply existing. Apparently, it would never be that simple. Obi-wan had warned her of that, just before she had departed.

 _The Force is strong in you. And it'll keep bring you back no matter what you do. I can't decide for you, Kaia, but I can only hope that you'll end up on the right side of things._ That was one of the pieces of their conversation that had stuck out the most. Obi-wan had desperately fought his hardest to keep Kaia within the order and he had been the one to break Kaia's heart the most leaving. Anakin had grown angry, and Ahsoka had understood, in a sense- but Kaia had never experienced a ripping pain like she had when she had felt Obi-wan's emotions through the Force that day. But she had no other choice. She could not remain with the Jedi with a healthy conscience-

"Kaia." A voice tore her out of her intense thought and she found that the speeder had been parked in the hangar. She noticed Poe staring at her with one eyebrow raised while Rey shifted her weight uneasily. "Come on, let's get you something to eat."

Kaia noticed her stomach growling. Typically the Force aided in mitigating her hunger and provided her with the energy that the food would not and when the adrenalin had faded and her need for connection with the Force disappeared she'd fall into the growling depths of hunger. Now, though, was a feeling entirely unparalleled- her body had been stuck in a frozen stasis for years and years and she seemed to have a ravenous and endless sort of hunger. So, she was not too upset with Poe's offer.

"I'm going to go to my room," Rey said in a soft voice. Kaia's eyes narrowed almost imperceivably and her and Rey made eye contact. It did not need to be said aloud that though Rey wished for time on her own, she needed to have a private conversation with Kaia tonight. A conversation without the prying ears of Poe and Finn constantly trying to obtain every piece of information about the mysterious and alluring Force and Jedi as they could. Kaia nodded at Rey who quickly turn and sped off towards the depths of the base before Finn or Poe could object. She watched the figure of the girl disappear and inquisitively wondered about her past. The past day had been a blur and she was still so, so utterly deep in a hurricane of confusion that she didn't even know where or how to begin to make sense of things. The only thing she could do now was trust that the Force would lead her in the right direction.

She'd learned of the Empire's fall through the success of Luke and Leia, Han Solo, Lando Calrissian. Poe did not have much to say of the Empire's reign except for the cruelty of Emperor Palpatine and the dark and terrible shadow that he cast over the entire galaxy. Poe had not skimped on the details of the heroic actions of his parents with the Rebellion and the medals and honors that were bestowed upon his mother for her outstanding performance in the war against evil. Kaia had seen the way a shadow had grown over Poe as he spoke of the destruction and cruel reign of the Empire.

And now, she'd been thrown in the middle of the Resistance to help Rey, the girl found by the Sith apprentice who had been broken out of her prison by Finn. Rey, a girl overwhelm inly strong in the Force. Kaia had sensed it the moment they had met and she was nervous to train such a girl. Kaia was hardly a Jedi Knight; now she was being thrown into a nearly impossible task. But, what other option did she have? Allow evil to prevail?

"You're awfully quiet," Poe said. It seemed that he was often the one to break her out of the deep trains of thought she'd been getting herself into. Kaia rubbed her forehead and tried to wash away the painful memories of the past and the dreadful confusion of the present.

"A lot to process. Sorry."

"You know, for a Jedi I thought you'd be a bit smarter."

" _Not_ a Jedi, and _ouch._ "

"You keep talking like that, Poe, and you're gonna end up with a saber in your back," Finn butt in with a grin. Kaia shook her head and opened her mouth to argue but naturally, Poe cut her off.

"She'd be dead before she had the chance."

"Oh? Challenging me now, I see? I suppose I _could_ give Lallani a quick call-" Kaia began, but now she had both Poe and Finn laughing.

"If I remember things correctly, _you_ were the one frozen in carbonite," Poe said with a chuckle. "I mean, what did you do to her, anyways?"

"Well, let's just say that Lallani did not take to her bounty hunters crossing her very kindly. And if you remember, she has _a lot_ of Mandalorians at her disposal," Kaia sighed.

"Oooooo," Poe replied. "Yea, you don't really wanna cross her, then. And, had. Most of them are gone now."

Kaia nodded. Poe and Finn continued to chatter while Kaia settled for just remaining between the two and lightly listening to their conversation here and there, but now she did not have the energy nor the heart to engage. The line in the canteen was painfully long and it began to grow impossible for Kaia to ignore the cries in her stomach so Poe pulled a few strings and managed to get them into the kitchen to get first dibs from the freshly cooked food being pulled and ready to serve to the Resistance members. She had followed Poe and Finn in a daze, being introduced to new faces left and right and only having the mental capacity to offer a weak smile and a hello. There was too much to process right now, too much she'd learned in the past 24 hours for her to be alright- the most shocking fact, to her, was the story of Anakin and the fact that her master had not only survived Order 66 but had grown old alone.

* * *

After they'd finished eating their dinner, Kaia had decided that Rey had been given enough time to recover from training for the day. Poe had some more maintenance to finish up on his X-wing and Finn, deciding that he had nothing better to do, figured it would be best for him to tag alongside Poe until something else came up. The Jedi did pique Poe's interest, however, and he found himself wanting to remain in her presence as much as he could. She asked him to guide her to Rey's quarters and he was more than happy to oblige but his mood was dampened a little when he began to become aware of the gist that the two women wanted space for themselves. "What will you guys be up to tomorrow?" Poe asked as he led Kaia through the halls of the base to the small room that Rey had been appointed. Of course, Rey rarely used the room, if ever, but right now Poe knew it's where she would be.

"Training every day until your sources send word of any crystals," Kaia replied with a sigh. "There's not much else to do-"

"Well, there's plenty you could help with!" Poe said enthusiastically. "We're _always_ in need of a hand- hey, you good with mechanics? Or, you know, Finn isn't exactly the best gunner and I'd always be willing to take in more help on the _Nightfall_." Kaia chuckled and shook her head.

"No, Poe. I'm here to help Rey."

Poe frowned slightly, but laughed it off. Meanwhile, Finn lightly complained about Poe's playful insult and the two began aback and forth while Kaia relaxed her breathing and became attuned to the Force energy that surrounded the Resistance base. It was more familiar to her than the energy had been in Lallani's base; here, there was so much more hope and eagerness and light than there had been on the other planet. But different than what she knew was the dread overhanging the rest of it, the fear that the members of the Resistance had shoved onto the backburner to attempt to forget about but was slowly licking away at their minds. They were _frightened._ From what, Kaia had not yet gotten a full glimpse of but she was hoping that this private discussion with Rey would help Kaia understand what she was up against. From the whispers and glimpses inside of the passerby's minds at the base she began to understand that to them, Kaia was a God. An extinct being that was going to make everything right again. Her. A former Jedi Knight who'd casted aside the extremist religion and fled for a life of following the Force. Kaia, a nobody, really, when compared to Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi whom she'd been so intimately close with. She was afraid that she would not be able to help them in the way she wanted them to.

Finally, Poe had stopped Kaia in front of a rusted steel door. Kaia sensed Rey behind the door. She could feel an air of nervousness and anxiety, but Rey was alone. "Well, here you are," Poe said, beckoning towards the door.

"Thank you."

As she stepped into the room, Poe just got a glimpse of Rey's dark hair before the door was shut in his face. He stared at the door for a moment longer until Finn spoke up. "Come on, we've got some work to do on _the Nightfall_ before tomorrow."

Poe nodded and turned to follow Finn to the hangar. He was hoping that Chewbacca and BB-8 had already found their way there to make the necessary repairs, but he was not so sure. The ship had taken quite a beating on their mission to Starkiller; Poe was surprised that the piece of junk had made it out of there in one piece.

Finn would never forget the night that the Resistance had assaulted Starkiller base. That night had changed the entire course of his fate. He could recall the day that the Knights of Ren had dragged Rey off of that ship onto the base, bloodied and half alive but fighting and kicking with that gleam of hope and resilience in her eyes that never quite seemed to fade. He'd been questioning his position as a Stormtrooper for quite a while, especially after he was promoted from a sanitary worker to being placed on the front lines of the First Order's warfare against… well, anything good in the galaxy. He had never been proud of the things he had done and hid behind the guise of being forced to do it by the First Order but he had a choice. But, when he saw Rey, his lifetime of choices he'd made under the First Order had flashed in front of his eyes. He'd been forced to face the mental consequences of what he'd done when he saw her. She was a girl, a scavenger taken from her peaceful albeit lacking life on Jakku, stripped of her free will for an organization she hardly knew nor cared about. The cruelty and rigidity of the First Order had been forced upon her and they'd taken her as they'd always taken whatever they wanted. Still, surrounded by enemies and a fate in the dark side led by Kylo Ren had not stopped her fighting nor taken her hope. That day, Finn had clung to Rey's resilience and found that it was a trait he longed to have in himself.

He had watched the days tick by as Rey withstood the cruelty of Kylo Ren, the taunting, the lashes of anger when Rey would not give the man what he wanted, the desparate struggle between light and dark. Still, Rey had never given in. She'd never succumbed to the tantalizing pull of the dark when she had absolutely no other reason not to. Her pitiful life on Jakku was gone with nothing else to live for but even then, Rey had clung to the lightside, to hope. Finn had come to realize that Rey was his beacon of hope, his light in the darkness, and his way out of a pitiful existence. So, when the alarms had started to blare and wail on that fateful day, Finn knew what he had to do. Han insisted that it had been pure luck that the he had run into Finn and Rey escaping, but deep down Rey had told Finn that she knew that the Force had led them to Han. And deep down, so did he.

Meanwhile, he returned his focus to Poe's ship in front of him and his face lit up when he spotted Tallisan and a few others waiting for their arrival with more than a few bottles of beer waiting for all of them.

* * *

"Rey," Kaia said softly, just as soon as the door behind her had been closed. She had not gotten a chance to properly talk to the girl earlier; as appreciative as she was of Poe's striking sarcasm and Finn's warm demeanor, there were some things that her and Rey had to talk about without the prying ears of the men. Rey smiled softly and glanced at Kaia. She was sitting on the edge of her cot and it was evident she'd been doing a meditation of some sort but Kaia thought the position was rather… odd. Perhaps she'd just taken a nap. Kaia sat down next to Rey on the cot and prepared for a conversation.

"Kaia," Rey greeted. Rey had decided she was not going to beat around the bush. She already felt comfortable around Kaia and found that she brought a calming and peaceful energy, which is what puzzled her. "I don't understand."

"Don't understand what?"

"How… how could you say the Jedi should not return? Why would you leave them? I've _felt_ what the dark side can do, I've _felt_ what the Sith can do. It was evil, a suffocating blackness that would not leave my heart…" Rey's voice trailed off. Kaia sighed and stared at her hands.

"I've often asked that question myself. But you know, Rey… the Force was not always split into two. It was not always light and dark. It was not torn in half until it was utilized by living beings, manipulated into being that way by the Jedi and the Sith."

"I'm afraid I don't understand," Rey replied, puzzled.

"Would you say that any person or being you've ever met is _purely_ good and has done absolutely no bad deeds or selfish acts, or that any bad person in this galaxy did not have a reason for what they were doing, that they've never thought a single good thing in their life?" Kaia inquired. Rey cocked her head and she began to shake it.

"No. No, I suppose, everybody has good and bad in them, no matter how miniscule an amount."

"And that is exactly it. It is the natural way for people to have both good and bad inside of them. In the same way, it is natural for the Force to have threads of darkness and light. After all, you cannot have one without the other. The Jedi… their intentions were pure, and their hopes for the galaxy were right and just. But through my years of training, I had unknowingly tapped into the darker threads of the Force but it had happened _naturally. The way it was supposed to._ I, along with many other Jedi over the centuries, were disciplined and shunned for using the Force in such ways. They told us it was a bad thing, they told us that the dark side was a horrible thing, but they never quite explained why. At least, not enough for my liking. As pure as their intentions were, they were separating the threads, forcing the Force to be something it should never have turned to. It is not the light nor dark side that is inherently bad; it is the devotion to one side entirely that is wrong."

Rey sat in silence for a few moments, chewing over everything Kaia had said. After years of keeping that stewing inside of the depths of her for nobody to see or hear, it took an immense pressure out of her chest when she was able to share that with somebody else. Somebody else who would truly _understand._ Somebody who would not judge her, somebody who could still look her in the eye after she told them. And the truth had _hurt_ Kaia in a way nothing had ever hurt before when she realized it. Rey did not respond, still mulling over Kaia's words, so Kaia continued on.

"And the Jedi had lost sight of the original goal in the first place. In the end, we were simply hands for the Republic. We were their weapons, their guard and attack dogs. Their politics had threaded itself into every facet of what we were and to watch the Order crumble into something so political… I could not stay. Others knew it, too, but the council was too focused on Republic matters. Bidding what they asked us to do. I had grown tired of going on missions for the sake of the Republic, for fighting, for attacking, instead of missions focused on discovery, on the Force. It had grown too tiring and it was not why the Jedi Order was formed."

Rey sat in silence for a few moments more before beginning to slowly nod. "I…I understand now. And I am sorry that you had to be the one to realize that." Kaia just nodded before Rey began to speak again, changing the topic entirely. "That is the way he feels, too."

"Who?" Kaia asked.

"Kylo Ren. Or… Ben Solo," Rey said quietly, nearly whispering.

"Who?" Kaia repeated, this time hinting at Rey to explain who exactly this man was that she spoke of.

"The Sith apprentice." Kaia's blood ran cold and she froze. "He is not what you think, he's not what anybody thinks. He's training to be a Sith but his heart is not there. He is conflicted; I can still feel the light in him, Kaia, and I know that Leia can too." Her tone grew increasingly more desparate as she felt Kaia's confusion rise and the hair on her arms raised at the mention of the Sith. Still, Kaia tried to remain as calm as possible even with the threat that the Sith had somehow touched Rey's heart. "We… we have a connection. Something strange, and I don't know what it is, but…"

Kaia sighed in relief and her shoulders sagged. "Rey, it is natural for you to feel connected with all living things, especially with as Force sensitive as you are. But please, tell me more about him. All that you can tell me."

Rey drew a breath and furrowed her brows only slightly. She knew that the connection between her and Ren was different. Something strange. It was not the connection that Kaia thought she knew; it was something more than that, something deeper that she was afraid nobody would understand. She had seen Ben Solo's heart on more than one occasion and she was convinced that she could sway him back into the light side. To returning to his family. So, for now, she decided that it was best for her to keep quiet about the connection lest Kaia attempt to interfere and ruin any foothold she had on Ren. "How much have you been told about Luke's new Jedi Order? Or about the Sith?"

"I'm afraid not much. Poe covered the Galactic Wars, and I've been made aware of the existence of the Sith but beyond that…" Kaia sighed. Rey was glad she was the one to get to talk to Kaia about this. Perhaps she could help her understand the truth about Kylo Ren.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Nightfall is just a Resistance gunship that Poe has kind of claimed for himself over the years. If his X-wing is in rough shape or it's a group mission that he doesn't really need an X-wing for, he will take the Nightfall.


	7. New Horizons

Poe had fallen asleep _hard,_ that night. He had not held back on the beer that Tallissan and some of the others in his squadron had brought to cheer him up. They knew that they had lost a lot of good people on his most recent mission, and even with the addition of the Jedi to the Resistance, the air had been heavy. Poe did a tragically good job of putting on a sarcastic and hard exterior, always the fun guy of the group, but those closest to him knew how hard every single death under his command hit. It never got easier for him, and he wished he could just make it _stop._ So, on nights like that, he drank his sorrows away and faded into the peaceful bliss of not knowing under the influence of alcohol.

And he _always_ dreamed of them. Every fighter that oh so faithfully led their Commander into battle, never believing that they would be the ones to be shot down and fall into the ranks of Resistance members who'd given their lives for the cause. He could hear their voices, in his dreams. As they cried out for what would be their last transmission before their radio line turned to static. As they called out for their family members, laughed, cried, got angry… he could hear all of them.

So, when Beebee woke him up at the crack of dawn the following morning as Poe had asked him to do, he was grateful that the droid had roused him from some of the worst nightmares that had ever plagued him before. As he rubbed the sleep from his eyes he sighed and began to slip into his clothing, ready to make some final, last-minute repairs to the _Nightfall_ that would be carrying him across the galaxy.

* * *

When Poe had entered the hangar, he stood for just a moment as he always did, closed his eyes, and took in the scent that had become oh so familiar with him throughout his lifetime. The hangar was quiet in such an early hour, the only sounds being the quiet hum of machinery, droids communicating with each other while they worked on ships, and the occasional conversation between some of the night-shift workers supervising the hangar. Even after all of his years with the Resistance, it never failed to amaze him how differently this Hangar could look in a couple of minutes. He recalled a few weeks prior when they had gotten false information that the First Order had confirmed D'Qar as one of the Resistance bases and the entire Resistance had to scramble to prepare for an evacuation until they learned that the First Order was trying to goad them out of hiding. He'd been working on his X-wing that night when the alarms had begun, and he'd watched the hangar go from peaceful and relaxing into a warzone.

Only, on this fine morning, Poe noticed something that _was_ rather odd and atypical for the Resistance hangar.

He noticed Kaia seated near the entrance, her legs crossed and arms neatly extended in a pose of meditation while she hovered a few feet off of the ground. He couldn't help but be a little amazed to watch what she was doing. The Force had always been rather blurry and nonexistent to Poe, but being around Rey (and now Kaia) so much, he was becoming more and more accustomed to it. A part of him wanted to go and immediately begin to check on the _Nightfall,_ but there _was_ a large team of droids surrounding it, and he was still eager to talk to Kaia once more.

He kept glancing between the _Nightfall_ and the meditating woman when he decided that perhaps he'd place a little more faith in the droids after all.

As he approached Kaia, he noticed her begin to lower to the ground and unfold her arms, reaching down softly to catch herself in her hands. "Poe," she greeted smoothly as she opened her eyes to find that the sun was already rising.

"Early riser?" Poe inquired curiously. Kaia nodded.

"I find dawn is the best time to mediate and connect with the Force." Poe nodded and bit his bottom lip before removing his gaze from the tip of the sun that was peeking over the treetops and looked at Kaia. _Stars, she's…_ even his thoughts trailed off. He just supposed that her side profile was nice.

"So what's the plan today?" Poe inquired, removing his stare from her after realizing it had been a little too long and turning back to watch the sun rise.

"Continue to train Rey. I suppose I'll go over some training exercises myself if it's Sith we are dealing with," Kaia sighed.

"You ever been a gunner before?" Poe asked. Kaia turned her head to glance at him with furrowed brows and a smile on her lips.

"A gunner? We were the Republic's work dogs, of course I've manned a ship before," Kaia said, scoffing and rolling her eyes.

"Touché," Poe chuckled. "Well, I could always use an extra hand for the mission, Finn is getting a little lazy with it. I could use a good gunner."

Kaia bit her bottom lip. Most of her conscious was telling her tp train with Rey, that they needed as much time as possible before they were forced to face the Sith. But a small sliver deep down inside of her wanted to stick around with the pilot, to fight side by side with him, but… she couldn't. Not while there were Sith plaguing the galaxy with nobody to stop them. "I'm sorry, Poe, but I have to train with Rey. We need as much time as we can."

"C'mon, Leia has been showing her some things for a while now, couldn't you just…." Poe shrugged comically before sitting down next to Kaia, his legs stretched out on the cementer before him. "I don't know, give her some exercises or something to do while you're going? Or, like, talk to her through the Force or whatever?"

"That's not how that works," Kaia said, shaking her head with a chuckle. Dameron was certainly charming, _that_ was for sure. She watched him carefully as he sat next to her, curious as to what he was doing. "Don't you have a ship to work on, anyways?" They both glanced over their shoulders to see three droids arguing with each other and tugging on some sort of tool, beeping and shrieking at each other and getting nothing done on the _Nightfall._ Turning back around, it only forced Kaia to laugh and Poe to wince.

"I think they've got it covered," Poe said. That's why he _never_ let those damned droids work on his X-wing, or most of the mechanics, for that matter. He found that nobody knew his ship like he did, the ins and the outs, the intricacies within the beast that were only visible through an eye particularly attuned for that specific X-wing. He regretted letting anybody touch it at Nar Kreeta at all for when they returned he'd found several clamps in places they shouldn't be and wires crossed incorrectly behind the access panel on the port side. "You could use a break, you know." Poe knew what she'd been through. Unfreezing from carbonite, learning the history of the galaxy in 47 years, learning what had happened to your old friends, learning the threats looming out there in the galaxy…

"I'm afraid I don't think that breaks were ever a part of my fate," Kaia said with an unfortunate sigh, returning her stare to the sun that was creeping higher and higher over the treetops.

"I'm not sure that you thought that getting frozen in carbonite for 50 years was part of your fate, either," Poe said, a sly grin growing on her face. Kaia could not help but smile at his cheeky wit, always quick to respond to what she had to say. She continued to stare over the swampy landscape of D'Qar in thought. No; what had happened to her was not something that she had seen in her fate. But, she supposed she couldn't be all that surprised. She knew what the risks of becoming a bounty hunter were, especially one of Lallani's hunters. With an entire fleet of Mandalorian bounty hunters under her thumb, during Kaia's prime, she had been one of the most feared crime lords in the galaxy.

This was a new reality for her. So perhaps it was time to start making decisions that she would not have otherwise. She sighed.

"Fine, Dameron. But only just this once, to return the favor of you getting me away from Lallani."

* * *

"So _where_ exactly are we going?" Finn said through a relaxed sigh as he kicked his feet up on the table in front of him, leaning against the back of the couch with his arms crossed behind his bad. From the pilot's seat in the cockpit, Poe shouted back, "Ovanis."

"Ovanis? That's like, fifty parsecs from here. That's going to take days," Finn remarked. Kaia silently agreed with Finn; she was slightly miffed that Poe had not mentioned that little bit, and instead only informed her she should probably bring supplies for a few days.

"That's why I told you to pack an extra pair of underwear," Poe shouted back with an uncannily straight face. Kaia smiled and Finn jokingly protested while BB-8 let out a series of chirps and beeps that resembled laughter. As they lifted out of the hangar, Poe had barely needed any help from Kaia who was currently sitting in the co-pilot's seat. She had urged Rey to come with them and train but both Leia and Rey presumed that it would be best if Rey remained on D'Qar. It seemed as though Rey had a strong attachment to the general- "You know, frown that much and your going to get wrinkles," Poe interjected, completely skewing her thoughts. On either side of them, X-wings of the black squadron were accompanying them on the mission just in case they needed a bit more firepower than the guns on the _Nightfall._ Kaia rolled her eyes but decided not to answer the pest. "So what exactly is on Ovanis?"

" _Ah._ That's classified information," Poe said back as he tilted the ship upwards to climb into the air in order to get to an appropriate altitude to jump into lightspeed. Before Kaia and Finn, who had now curiously poked his head into the cockpit, could press more about the vague mission Poe flipped the mouthpiece of his headset to his mouth and began to communicate with the pilots in the X-wings. He had personally chosen those who would accompany them on this mission: Tallisan Lintra, Jessika Pava, and Temmin Wexley, though Kaia had never heard anybody call him anything other than 'Snap'. Kaia had met him on one occasion, when Poe and Finn and Rey had dragged her into the mess hall. He was a jolly fellow and was obviously very adoring of his wife. Temmin was quite, but Kaia had liked Pava the most. She made her feel at ease, as if Kaia had known her her entire life. In a way, Pava reminded Kaia of Poe. In fact, she'd suspected there'd been feelings between them until she'd witnessed Pava's lips on another woman hidden deep back in the hangar where they thought nobody would find them.

Tallissan, on the other hand, gave Kaia an immediately bad feeling. She wanted to like the girl, she truly did, but she knew that Tallie was hiding something. Poe seemed to talk about her and look at her rather fondly, so Kaia supposed she had to have been alright up until this point. Out of pure respect for Anakin Skywalker's daughter and the rest of the Resistance who had so heartily welcomed her into their ranks she had strayed away from prodding into Tallisan's brain. Still, there was something underneath that caused her to have much suspicion towards the girl.

It did not help that Poe's friends relentlessly ragged on him and Tallissan for the secret relationship they'd carried around for a few weeks before people found out. _He's too stubborn,_ she would always laugh. _And she's too sweet._ Kaia was not jealous, and she most definitely did not harbor any kind of feelings for Poe but she just supposed it rubbed her the wrong way due to the negative energy that tainted her Force signature. She had set her mind to keeping a suspicious eye on the woman even if it was a false trail. It could not hurt for Kaia to be too careful.

Her gaze returned to the sky before her, watching as the X-wings on either side of their ship leapt into lightspeed. After a few more flicks of switches and one final push on the throttle, the _Nightfall_ jumped forward in a familiar notion that even after all this time, Kaia still never truly got used to.


	8. Changes

A few hours into the trip Kaia found herself seated with Finn and Poe at the booth in the back of the _Nightfall,_ a few cans in front of them, some full, some empty. Kaia had attempted to retreat into a more private corner of the trip to meditate on some things but Beebee had insisted quite adamantly that she spent some time with the others. Of course, Kaia had not missed the gleaming eyes of Poe as he watched Beebee relentlessly pester Kaia about joining his most favorite human being ever. She found herself listening to Poe recount the story of the mission that had badly damaged a majority of his squadron, ultimately leading Poe to the very city where he'd rescue Kaia.

"…had to steal navicomputer data from _the Hevurion Grace,"_ Poe said. Finn's face furrowed for a moment in contemplation before shaking his head.

"That's not a First Order ship, at least not one that I know of," he remarked. Poe continued on.

"No, and you wouldn't, because it belongs to a Republic senator. Leia had proof that they were a First Order sympathizer, and this only confirmed it. I boarded the ship and claimed to be the Irving Boys to hide the identity of the Resistance. Yea, by myself. The best damn pilot and the best damn person in this entire Resistance," Poe gloated. Kaia shook her head but still quietly remarked that she did find it impressive he boarded the ship on his own and came out alive, even if his ship was in shambles.

"Whatever, I'm sure I could've done it ten times faster," Finn quickly retorted. Naturally, Poe was quick to reply and the two began to banter back and forth until Kaia interrupted them. 

"What data did you find on the ship?" Kaia questioned in a suspicious tone. She prodded lightly at the fringes of Poe's consciousness but it seemed as though Leia had been able to provide him with a basic training against mind assault from the Force and to pry any further would make her endeavors obvious. She figured that whatever defenses his mind had might even cause pain if she were to attempt to breach him. Kaia was impressed that the general had been able to put any defenses on the pilot's mind at all.

"Classified information," Poe breathed through a rather cocky sigh. "If I tell you I'd have to kill ya." Kaia rolled her eyes and leaned back into the seat while Finn chuckled and took a swig from the can on the table in front of him. She was still curious as to what sort of information the Resistance had been willing to send Poe Dameron onto that ship by himself for, and she made a mental note to draw it out of him eventually. Kaia wasn't quite sure as to why she was not kept in the loop by the Resistance but she supposed they'd learned to be wary of even the most "good" individuals they'd come across. She respected that. She didn't want their respect because she was a Jedi, she wanted their respect because they trusted her. Kaia had seen what happened when the galaxy had placed blind faith in the Jedi simply because of the title they held.

"Well if you want us to succeed on this mission I find it best if we know the nature of it," Kaia said smoothly. Poe looked at her and for just a moment, she found herself entranced by his eyes, so warm and smooth, reminding her of the chocolate that Master Qui-gon would sometimes sneak to her and the other children when Master Windu and the others weren't watching too closely. She had seen eyes like his before but she could not quite place her finger on where exactly she'd seen them before. Poe sighed.

"We're looking for someone."

"Who?" Finn quickly shot back. Poe shot him an annoyed glare.

" _Classified._ Can't have too many people knowing in case…"

"Things go south?" Finn asked. Poe pursed his lips and nodded. He hated to think that something would go wrong with some of the best in the Resistance surrounding him, but he supposed things hadn't exactly been conventional of the late. "Who could we be looking for on _Ovanis?_ Not much of anything there."

"Poe, you're looking for somebody. I think the nature of my abilities could aid in that search," Kaia urged. She leaned forward now, staring at Poe with an intense gaze. "I could locate this person."

"Leia couldn't even do it," Poe retorted.  
  
"I'm a _Jedi._ A true, old-fashioned _Jedi_. Well… used to be, anyways. Nothing against Leia but she lacks the formal training that I had under some of the greatest Jedi in the galaxy," Kaia continued on. She felt rather guilty for throwing Leia under the bus, and she knew that Leia was likely stronger than Kaia at this point in time, but she was going to remain steadfast on the fact that Kaia likely beat Leia due to the little nooks and crannies in the Force she'd been forced to memorize. Leia might have Kaia beat on pure brute strength but Kaia's training allowed her to understand the Force better than she suspected Leia did. Poe sighed and shook his head again.

"Either way, it doesn’t matter. This individual… they know ways around things. How to hide. You won't be able to find them." After Poe said that, Kaia looked at him suspiciously, her brows furrowed. She mused in her head what this meant; the target would know how to hide from a Jedi? That seemed rather odd indeed. She wished to continue to prod Poe for answers until he cleverly decided to switch the topic. She leaned back in her seat, eyeing Poe warily and deciding to wait until a more private time to gather more answers. "Anyways, I was thinking of landing on Toola so that the pilots can get some rest," Poe explained.

"Toola…" Kaia said, traveling through her memories to see what this planet was. It did not take long for memories of this place to fly back. "Toola! We had a few squadrons of clone cold assault troopers stationed there."  
  
Poe and Finn glanced at each other, communicating silently, before Finn turned back to Kaia.

"The New Republic freed Toola after the fall of the Empire. They didn't stick around, though. Now it's just a pitstop for smugglers and spicerunners." He shot a harsh glance at Poe who could only find the means to chuckle.

"You're willing to let such a vital and _classified_ mission be jeopardized to get some catch-eye in a backwater pitstop?" Kaia asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, when you put it like that…" Poe's voice trailed off, avoiding answering the question. "I'm sure you're used to some rather unconventional conditions when it comes to missions?" Poe looked pointedly at Kaia, and she shifted. Sure, as a Jedi she was sent all across the galaxy and had to go to some rather _unsavory_ places and assume strange identities in order to obtain intelligence, but she wasn't sure Poe knew much of what she'd done under Lallani. Bounty hunting was never a particularly clean profession even with the credits she'd earned through her success. She supposed she'd rather keep it that way as some of her targets had been people the galaxy would've deemed "good guys".  
  
She wasn't sure Poe would like that very much.

"If you're referring to bringing bedbugs home then _no._ I'd never stoop that low. But… other Jedi did not mind as much as I had," she sarcastically scoffed. _Stars,_ she'd _never_ forget the fury she had felt when Anakin and Ahsoka had spent the night in a slum and transferred the pests to her and Obi-wan. She'd nearly throttled the young Togruta where she had stood.

"Well, glad to hear _something_ got into your bed," Poe murmured under his breath. Kaia felt her cheeks grow red as he made eye contact with Finn and began to laugh rather loudly. She simply crossed her arms and huffed. She didn't feel like explaining the purpose and importance of keeping no connections when you were as powerful as Jedi were, at least not to men who she didn't think could understand.

* * *

"Stars, I should've found myself a jacket," Kaia murmured under her breath, wrapping her arms around herself. They'd landed just outside of the city limits tucked in between two hills of ice on the frozen tundra fields of the planet. Kaia had been able to talk them into staying out of the city, claiming it would be detrimental to their mission. The only one to argue (rather vehemently, at that,) had been Finn. She'd been surprised that Poe had sided with her. He seemed like the typical stubborn pilot who would always want to do the opposite of what everybody else wanted to do. Now, she was standing at the bottom of the ramp of the ship, eyes scanning the surrounding horizon for any sorts of threats. There were various creatures that lurked the ice of the planet who she would've felt much better defending off with a lightsaber but for now she was only granted a blaster from the Resistance. They did not seem to have much else to offer. On either side of the _Nightfall,_ the X-wings were settling down and the pilots were performing some post-flight prechecks before retreating to the _Nightfall_ for some rest.

From behind her, she felt something wrap around her shoulders. A jacket. With a fur-lined interior. One that could not have been cheap, or so Kaia surmised. She turned to see Poe wrapping a brown leather jacket around her shoulders. _Oh?_ She thought to herself. "I'll be alright, you need this," she said, attempting to shrug the jacket off but he shook his head.

"I figured you'd be too stubborn to let anybody else keep watch tonight, and I have an extra in the cabin," Poe said as Kaia worked her arms into the jacket, finding relief in the warm and furry interior. At those words, Beebee came rolling down the ramp with a small metal arm holding a similar but thinner jacket. "Thanks, Beebee."

"He's loyal," Kaia commented as the astromech droid rolled hurriedly back into the ship to do whatever it was that Poe had asked him to do. Poe worked the thinner jacket onto himself and she could not help but feel guilty. She supposed this is where his stubbornness would come into play, though. Even though she was blocked from his mind, she could still sense that.

"To a fault, " Poe replied, shaking his head. "I think he's got more of me in him than droid. Think I did something wrong when I was building him."

"I'm not sure loyalty is something that can be programmed," Kaia said as she zipped the front of the jacket up. Now she was mostly protected from the biting wind and chilling air of the frigid planet. For a moment she found herself missing her Jedi attire, the sweeping robe that protected them from most conditions, threads weaved together with the Force to provide more protection than any ordinary cloak. "From my experience, it's only something that can be earned."

"And the Jedi didn't earn yours?" Poe asked. There was nearly something bitter in his voice, something biting in his tone as he glanced at Kaia. She did not physical recoil but mentally, the comment stung her in a way that nothing he'd said yet had.

"I'll keep watch," Kaia said, returning her gaze to the horizon. Nothing seemed to approach the ship… yet. She could feel stares being drawn here, though, and she knew that when the planet's sun finally faded below the horizon the curiosity would grow too strong for some to handle. Poe turned and marched back into the ship, leaving Kaia to ponder why his tone had changed so suddenly.

* * *

The sun had sank below the horizon long ago, and the temperatures only continued to drop in the icy landscape. In the distance, the small city they had landed near provided a faint glow but they were too far for the light to scare off any of the predators that roamed the surface of Toola. She had extended a field of the Force around the ships that seemed to keep the smaller creatures at bay but she knew that the later it got into the night, the bigger ones would grow bolder and bolder. She was not worried. She had faced worse with less.

She was still puzzled by the interaction she had had with Poe earlier. He had done something kind for her; the jacket had proved to be worthy as it was keeping her warm at her seat at the base of the boarding ramp through the night. But that comment… there was something bothering him. The notion of Kaia losing loyalty to the Jedi seemed to have struck a chord within him and for what reason, she did not know. Still, she did not feel like prodding to find out. She continued to scan the tundra with her eyes and reach out with the Force, determined to keep the mission as safe as she could. Though, she'd feel far more comfortable with a lightsaber at her side. She had not wielded one in her conscious state for years but she did not doubt for a second that the muscle memory would come back to her.

Something moved.

The hair on her arms rose and with lightning speed her hand flew to her belt and removed the blaster, clicking back the safety and whipping around to point the blaster-

"Woah, relax," Poe said, emerging from the depth of the ship with two wooden bowls with a steaming liquid within in his hands. Kaia relaxed her muscles and lowered the blaster to her side. She began to breathe more calmly to try and filter the adrenalin that had flooded her system and furrowed her brows as she turned 'around to continue to watch the horizon. She listened to Poe settle on the ramp beside her.

"Couldn't sleep?" She asked, easing her body back into the resting position she'd been into before. Poe extended his arm out to her, offering one of the bowls of soup he'd brought off of the ship. She had not realized how hungry she'd grown until she took the soup from Poe, deciding that the heat would feel good.  
  
"Never can," he sighed as he settled on the ramp next to Kaia, staring out over the horizon. They just sat next to each other for a few moments, sipping on the soup and letting the warmth permeate their bones and offer some relief from the bitterly cold wind. She wasn't quite sure what to say to him since they'd left each other on such a sour note. "By the way…. I'm sorry. About earlier. I didn't mean for that to come out that way."

Kaia nodded. "It's alright."

"No- no, it's really not," Poe continued on. She sensed something that resembled pain behind his tone. She did not answer. He remained silent for a few moments but Kaia could sense him mulling over something to say beside her, the words nearly spilling from his mouth but getting contained just in time.

The horizon was silent, but things were stirring in the dark.

"I just… I guess I just don't understand."

"Understand what?" Kaia quickly replied, now turning her head to face Poe.

"The Jedi _knew_ there was evil in the galaxy, you _knew_ there was evil, you _knew_ there was discord, there was _war,"_ Poe burst out. "How could you just walk away from that?"

Kaia's blood ran cold and she turned away. Her face grew colder than it had been when he'd walked out here. "I don't feel the need to explain myself to you. Their… beliefs did not align with mine any longer. The war turned us into the Republic's offense, the Jedi council was allowing our ranks to crumble."

She paused for a moment.

"If the Resistance stopped aligning with your beliefs and began turning into everything they'd ever fought against you'd leave too."

Beside her, she felt Poe shift. And she was even more than surprised at his response.

"I… I understand now. I'm sorry," Poe sighed. They both simultaneously began to sip on the soup to avoid the awkward silence that had fallen-

A blur of white in front of her face and she heard crashing beside her as Poe was tackled off of the ramp by something white, large, and _incredibly_ smelly. He landed on the hard ice with a shout. Before he'd hit the ground Kaia had already flung her bowl of soup to the ground and drawn her blaster, aiming it carefully at the white figure now dragging Poe across the ice. "Poe!" She shouted, leaping to her feet and sprinting across the ice with delicate balance after the snow-demon trying to take Poe away from the ship. Around them, she began to hear yips and howls and snarls from other creatures of the night but she was only focused on saving Poe from the grasps of the snow-demon; however, it was flying above the ground faster than she could run, slipping further and further away by the second. She couldn't shoot in fear that something would shift and the blaster would hit Poe; no, she'd have to do this the more traditional way.

She skidded to a stop on the ice and raised her free hand towards the snow demon. Kaia calmed her breathing and focused on the Force flowing through her veins, connected to the beings around her, surrounding her, pulsing and breathing as though it was a living thing… the demon froze in its tracks, shaking above the ground as it attempted to move but could not, trapped by something invisible it would likely never understand. With her other hand she lifted the blaster and shot the snow demon on the back of the neck.

Both of her hands fell and so did the creature, body now limp and dead, right onto Poe. She heard a loud grunt and immediately set off towards him, reaching him within a matter of seconds. The furry snow demon's body was still steaming in the frigid air and she kicked its body off of Poe whos jacket was torn in the arm from its talons. His face had a large scratch on it from hitting the ice but other than that, he seemed relatively unscathed. He leaned his head back on the ice and began _laughing_ much to Kaia's surprise. She raised an eyebrow and looked down at the chuckling pilot. "Of _course_ that happens to me. Karma is a bitch, right?" He said as he took Kaia's extended hand and she pulled him up to his feet. He brushed the white fur off of himself while Kaia glanced around them. She could sense creatures staring and circling them, but watching her kill the large snow demon with such ease was likely going to keep them at bay.

They began to walk across the ice back towards the ship. Poe fingered the frayed fringes of his jacket where the creature's talons had torn it and Kaia reached for the zipper of the jacket she had on. "Here, you can have this back now," she said as she began to unzip it but Poe lifted his head from his arm and shook it.

"Nah, I think you deserve it a bit more than me," Poe chuckled. "Besides, don't you Jedi wear all of that robe crap and stuff? Leia mentioned something about getting you something like that."

"Yea. But I think I'm good for now. Hard to go unnoticed when you dress like that when there's no more Jedi anymore," Kaia responded. A part of her missed the cloaks, the tunics, the traditional Jedi garb but she looked down and found comfort in the normality of the pants and jacket she was wearing, even if it was Poe's. While working as a bounty hunter she'd had to blend in and she'd gotten used to wearing normal clothes.

"Besides, it looks better on you than it does me," Poe playfully said. Kaia looked at him for just a few moments before focusing back on the ship they were headed towards. He certainly was a strange character, that was for sure.


	9. Dances at Night

After the close encounter with the snow demon, the brutal death of the creature had proven to keep any other brave creatures scared enough of Kaia to stay away from the _Nightfall_ while Poe fixed some more soup for him and Kaia. They spent the night on the ramp keeping watch and ensuring no pesky scrappers tried to steal things from the outside of the ship but the tundra seemed void of any humanoid life. Still, they enjoyed the night together, talking about the current going ons in the galaxy, things she didn't particularly care about but still found interesting to listen to, such as the most popular bands, the current condition of the spice trade, and all sorts of odds and ends Poe thought worthy enough to mention.

Poe seemed to enjoy talking Kaia's ear off and grew rather fond of her presence. She was somebody new, somebody who didn't know who he was. To Kaia, Poe was just a cocky starfighter pilot and he was quite alright with that. He assumed she had more important things on her mind and was surprised she'd even agreed to come on this mission in the first place.

They hadn't even realized dawn had come until the X-wing pilots emerged from the ship, heading down the ramp donned in their flight suits looking nice and refreshed from the stop. "Did he chat your ear off?" Snap asked with a wide grin on his face. Poe rolled his eyes and Kaia smiled softly.

"He never stopped."

"Oh, you liked it," Poe grumbled. Before anything else could be said, Kaia had already rose to her feet and made her way back into the ship. She had found herself growing drowsy in the last hour or so and decided she'd rest while they were flying. If they needed her in the gunner position, she assumed something, or someone, would wake her up at that point. Poe watched her figure disappear into the ship as he rose to his feet, holding the empty soup bowls in his hand. Tallissan rolled her eyes and then scoffed before departing the ship towards her X-wing while Pava slapped Poe's shoulder and laughed before similarly heading to hers. Snap was the last to stand by Poe who was still watching the spot where Kaia had disappeared. "You've got the hots," Snap playfully sung, snapping Poe out of his trance. Poe furrowed his brows.

"-What? No. She's just a friend, I barely know her," Poe argued back. Snap shook his head before responding.

"You never let anybody touch that jacket, Poe." And with that, Snap was heading off towards his X-wing, prepared for long hours of flying through hyperspace and chattering mindlessly with everybody else through the comm links. Poe watched Snap walk away with a look of disbelief on his face- sure, Kaia was certainly attractive, and maybe she had something alluring to her that drew Poe to her like he hadn't quite been drawn to anybody before but… that didn't mean anything, did it? She'd been a Jedi. He'd assumed that the Force had drawn everybody towards her. Then again, he wasn't entirely sure how the Force worked after all. Shaking his head, he headed up the ramp. Snap was right. It was his favorite jacket.

* * *

When he entered the cockpit Kaia was already seated in the co-pilot's chair in the cockpit, staring out at the frozen tundra ahead. The snow and ice was blinding with the reflection of the rising sun but the warmth of the star began to melt some of the coldness, allowing signs of life to peek through the white layer. He stood behind her seat for a few moments and looked over the landscape of the planet with a sigh. He'd never been fond of the colder planets, having grown up on Yavin-4 in the middle of the jungle. Still, he always thought that when he grew older he'd get married and raise a family in a place where the seasons were apparent, where you could get snow in the winter and blistering hot days in the summer- those days seemed to grow further and further from his reach. A family almost seemed out of the question with the end of this war so far away.

"On your mark, commander," Pava's voice broke through the comm on the control board of the ship. He worked his way into the pilot's seat and began to perform some pre-flight checks but was rather relieved when he realized that Beebee must've done most of it-

"No, that was me," Kaia lazily said from beside him.

"You didn't have to do that," Poe returned. Deep down, there was a part of him that was irritated- he preferred to do all of the checks himself so that he knew exactly what conditions he'd be flying with-  
  
"I've flown a time or two, Poe. You don't need to worry about having a sufficient copilot," Kaia said with a small smirk on her face. Poe glanced over to her and couldn't help but smile a bit as he shook his head. _That was going to get irritating,_ he thought to himself. Rey always did the same thing- even though they couldn't breach the defenses of his mind the two women could always read his mood and whatever thoughts he let slip away from him.

After a few more back and forths with the X-wing pilots, the ships lifted themselves off of the ground and guided themselves into a proper position to enter the hyperspace lanes. A routine take-off. It never took long for Poe to find himself easing the ship into the familiar corridor of blinding white streaks with strips of the empty blackness of space poking through. If they traveled for two days without rest he surmised that they'd be to Ovanis by the next time they needed to sleep. After he'd set the ships autopilot controls on he turned to Kaia to ask a quick question about the readings on some of the monitors but when he glanced over he was surprised to see her figure curled up in the co-pilot's chair, head tucked into the side of the seat with her mouth hanging ever so slightly open. Her face was peaceful and still and her eyes didn't move underneath her eyelids- she needed the rest and she'd fallen asleep, hard. The corners of his mouth turned up into a smile as he reached for one of the blankets he kept underneath the side cabinet in the cabin of the ship, often for naps just like the one Kaia was taking.

Carefully and quietly, he draped the blanket over the girl's sleeping form before falling back into the pilot's seat. He supposed he could go back and play sabaac with Finn or perhaps find something to work on with Beebee as the ship needed never-ending work and repairs but all too soon, he found his thoughts fading away into more ludicrous and ludicrous streams of thinking until they turned into dreams, his eyes growing too heavy to keep open as he fell into the depths of sleep…

* * *

" _Should we wake him up?"_ Finn whispered down to the orange and white astromech droid staring as quizically as a droid can at the pilot he considered his master and the strange new woman who had come to his beloved Resistance. Beebee chirped rather softly back at Finn in indignance. He was an intelligent enough droid to recognize that Poe needed the rest. Finn crossed his arms and looked at the scene before him. The hyperspace lane was flashing by methodically outside of the cockpit; staring at it would make anybody fall asleep. Poe had fallen asleep in the pilot's seat and in his slumber had reached out for the blanket that had been on Kaia, causing her to shift in the co-pilot's seat towards him and rest her head on his shoulder. So, the two sat in a deep sleep, Kaia's head rested on Poe's shoulder while their body heat both circulated and kept them warm under Poe's blanket.

Finn listened to the droid's chirps and nodded while pursing his lips before returning to the back of the ship to continue mulling over leaked First Order coded messages to try and decipher what they meant.

Meanwhile, Poe and Kaia had been asleep for _hours._ The X-wing pilots assumed as much when Poe's sarcastic remarks had stopped flowing through the comm links, which was only slightly dispiriting to them as they did not have much in terms of entertainment. Books and datapads with films on them only kept their attention for so long; the human interaction kept them from going insane in the light of hyperspace. The previous night, though well-spent keeping an eye on the ship and laughing in the darkest hours of the night, had drained them of energy and they knew they had to rest while they had the chance.

  
Beebee was surprised. It wasn't often that Poe was able to sleep, especially without the droid by his side, but here he'd fallen asleep so easily, in the pilot's seat no less. The droid was surprised that Poe hadn't been woken by the touch of Kaia's head on his shoulder as the man usually woke up from a lot less than that. Still, he wasn't going to question it, and he wasn't going to get in the way of his master getting some much needed rest.

* * *

_"And I'm told your name is Kaia Wyn?" A voice called out from behind her. It was warm and smooth and familiar and as the young girl turned her eyes met piercing blue eyes that stared at her gently, the corners of his mouth turned up into a smile. As Kaia met the Jedi that would be training her until she was worthy enough to become a Jedi knight she found herself falling to a knee out of reverence- she felt a hand on her shoulder. "I'm all for traditions and rules, young one, but for now, you may stand."_

_She rose and stood before Obi-wan, staring at him with a combination of adoration and fear. She'd heard much of Obi-wan Kenobi and she had particularly liked his lessons when he'd come to help Master Yoda while teaching the younglings. When Master Windu had informed her of who would be training her throughout her years as a Padawan, she'd been terrified, to say the least._

_His last Padawan had been the esteemed Anakin Skywalker. How could she ever compare?_

_She watched Obi's knowing smile before he extended his hand out to her comfortingly. "Come, little one. We have much to learn."_

* * *

Kaia woke up with a start, heart fluttering and breathing heavily. Where was she- had she fallen asleep on a mission again? As she attempted to blink the fogginess of sleep out of her eyes her mind raced to remember where she was going, she reached out for Obi-wan's presence-

"Geez, have a rough dream?" A voice said from beside her ear. She nearly jumped out of her skin when her reality came crashing down on her. The Jedi were gone. Obi-wan was dead. She was with the Resistance now, fighting against demons that hadn't even ben dreamt of when she'd been alive. The further and further she grew from sleep she began to realize that her head was rested on somebody's shoulder- the body who belonged to the voice. She lifted her head rather quickly before turning and seeing a smirking pilot staring back at her.

"I just forgot where I was, that's all," she said softly, shaking her head in annoyance. Why had she fallen asleep in that position? Poe chuckled.

"Yea, hyperspace sleep will do that to ya." He'd woken up only moments before Kaia had. He hadn't even had time to move or to try and wake her, she'd done that on her own. He was curious as to why she'd woken up so suddenly but figured it seemed too personal to ask anymore questions- he was still a little weirded out that she'd shifted into that position in her sleep in the first place.

"I don't let that happen often," she remarked as she sat up and stretched her arms and legs out, slightly cramped from the unsavory sleeping position. She wasn't sure what the day of flight would have in store for her; she knew she wanted to meditate more today, and perhaps even try to reach out to Rey and see how far along she'd been coming. She was afraid that she wasn't going to be prepared enough to take on what was ahead of them with just her and Rey.

* * *

The following days passed by more swiftly than they'd all thought. Not wanting to waste any more time, Poe had decided to have occasional swaps of duties and much to Kaia's eventual annoyance she'd been piloting one of the X-wings alongside Poe and Finn while the others manned the _Nightfall_ and stretched their legs for some much needed rest. The sabaac board had gotten its fair share of use and Beebee began to hide from the Resistance members who found joy in the radio transmitter they enjoyed listening to music from. Naturally, Kaia was excluded with gaudy anger rather quickly from the game as she found it too easy to predict her opponent's moves by seeding through the exterior layer of their consciousness. It was second nature for her.

It became apparent very quickly to Kaia that Poe enjoyed spending his nights listening to music and tangling his hands with others to dance and sway with smiles to the beat of the music; it seemed everybody knew that quite well except for the Force user. Pava and Snap had been quick to volunteer to man the X-wings as what they considered their day drew to an end to void such nonsense (with grins, of course) while Finn, Kaia, and Tallie had taken to drawing sticks. Kaia had quickly volunteered to pilot one of the smaller ships as she truly did not mind and she found that it was more peaceful than being distracted by those on the _Nightfall_ but Poe had insisted she stayed on the ship. She could sense Tallissan's annoyance whenever she lost the draw and left just Finn, Poe, and Kaia on the ship with Beebee. However, Kaia did not mind. She never did. She'd faced far worse in her lifetime; one annoying, jealous X-wing pilot barely crossed her mind.

Well, one pilot seemed to cross her mind more often than she would've liked.

 _"Care to dance?"_ He would ask, extending his hand to Kaia under the purposely dimmed lights of the interior of the _Nightfall_ while Beebee rolled around Finn, chirping softly while Finn and the droid danced together as well as a man and an astromech droid could. She had not ever been one for dancing- the Jedi would often be invited to balls and the like and Obi-wan had always been invited; naturally, he'd always forced Kaia to tag along as well. She thought that there were better ways to spend time and energy rather than invest it in such a simple and strange thing. Still, in the dim lights of the ship with tinny music playing from a droid beside two men who should never even have known of her existence, she felt a strange sort of peace. The peace of simplicity. The peace of a life she might've lead in the past if the Jedi had never found her. So, as the days passed, she grew less and less annoyed with Poe's antics. After all, it was quite likely the only thing that would keep her going over the dreadfully boring days of space travel. And she never found herself growing bored with him, either.


	10. The Egg

Ovanis had appeared rather quickly.

When they jumped out of hyperspace before the planet, Kaia was surprised to see that the entire surface of the planet was covered in ridges and mountains, leaving no flat land that seemed to prove safe for them to land. The rock had a greenish tinge to it and she began to surmise what this planet contained. As far as she could see there were no civilizations. How could there be? The terrain was too rough and jagged for any structurally sound settlements to be formed. "What's the plan, Poe?" Snap's voice called out through the comm link on the control panel of the _Nightfall._ While Poe began to steer the ship towards the surface of the planet, Kaia reached forward and began to fire up the landing gear and ensure that everything was working as it should be.

"Why don't you guys stick around the surface and keep an eye out for anything? If we need ya, I'll let you know," he told the X-wings. They all confirmed before peeling away from the _Nightfall_ to set about their own routes for monitoring the planet.

"Where exactly are you going to land, commander?" Kaia asked. There was a hint of playfulness in her voice which was something Poe hadn't heard her express often.   
  
"What, you don't trust me?" Poe scoffed.

"I never said I don't trust you, but have you seen this rock?" Kaia motioned towards the planet in front of them. "Not sure a hummingbird could find a comfortable place to land here. Besides, as a matter of fact, I _don't_ trust you."

"Best pilot in the galaxy, thought you'd know that by now. Anyways, we're not landing on the planet, we're landing _in it."_

"Oh great," Kaia murmured under her breath. Returning her gaze to the planet that was quickly approaching before them, she mulled over what Poe could've possibly meant

She discovered when he kept plummeting closer and closer towards the strangely-colored rock to one of the lower areas and she couldn't help but wonder what exactly he was planning-there didn't seem to be _any_ flat area at all for them to land and her stomach clenched only slightly when he didn't seem to be slowing down as they approached the surface- "Poe, what are you-"

She reached over and grabbed his arm but he just laughed. Kaia braced herself for impact with the surface, but it never came. She stopped wincing and looked out the front of the window where Poe had guided them through a large cavern on the surface, and alas, at the bottom was a flat area more than big enough for them to land the _Nightfall_ and several more ships if they had wanted to. "Trust me now?" She rolled her eyes and began to release the landing gear as she'd been preparing to, only slightly embarrassed that she'd been so frightened of what he was going to do.

* * *

Kaia watched from the ship while Finn and Beebee argued behind her about fixing the signal- apparently, it was incredibly bad down here and Beebee was going to have to boost it in order to communicate with the other pilots and the Resistance. She turned her head and looked at Poe who was greeting members of a tribe who seemed to dwell down here in what appeared to be an entire system of caverns underneath the surface of the planet- she supposed it had a lot more to it than meets the eye. She could sense Poe growing frustrated as he continued to converse with one of the tribe members, one who she assumed to be the leader of sorts- she wondered what they knew. Glancing back at Finn, she caught his eyes and he shook his head. "I think he probably needs some help- I gotta deal with this piece of junk droid," Finn told her. At that, a small metal point protruded from Beebee's body and poked him hardly in the leg, causing Finn to yelp and hop around. Kaia chuckled and began to make her way towards Poe and the beings that inhabited the caverns. As she approached, she began to hear snippets of their conversation. "…he was here, unless there's another giant egg shrine around somewhere. I just need to talk to him, and then I'm out of your hair, I promise. Where is he?"

" _Gone. He left long ago,"_ the being before Poe said. She recognized the language but she did not recognize the species of the tribe; something long and old and forgotten underneath the surface of the planet, she supposed. Just as the being stopped speaking Kaia placed her hand on Poe's shoulder. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"What?" Poe said, obviously cross as he placed his hands on his hips and leaned towards Kaia, just out of earshot from the tribes people.

"They don't seem very happy with you," Kaia observed.

"Look, I know how to do my job-"

"And if they're not willing to tell you what you want to know then this mission will be a waste."

Poe sat for a few moments in contemplation before speaking. "So what do you suggest I do?"

"Let me speak with them."

"No. Kaia, I'm sorry, but-"

" _Poe._ I was a Jedi. It was our duty to keep peace in the galaxy, _I know how to talk to them,"_ Kaia urged. She found Poe staring at her rather deeply with those intoxicating brown eyes of his, swirling with both annoyance and a smidge of curiosity from what Kaia could tell. He brought his hand to his chin and rubbed it for a few moments before finally throwing his hands in the air in defeat.

"Fine."

"One thing… what do they know?"

* * *

"Oh stars, I think I'm going to throw up," Poe murmured from beside Kaia. They were currently seated on the soft floor of one of the tribes residences carved into a tunnel in the side of the cavern underneath torches that cast a bright glow over the place. After Kaia had spoken to them they'd grown much more kind and receptive to conversation and decided to invite the strangers to break bread with them, which seemed to be a high honor in the village. There were tribe members gathered outside of the tunnel, peering in, while the head of the tribe and what seemed to be the higher ups were the only ones seated around the table with Finn, Poe, and Kaia. Some of the females of the tribe had insisted on dragging Finn away from Beebee and bringing him here, much to Finn's annoyance, and a crowd of young ones were swooning at the entrance of the cave and trying everything they could do to capture Finn's attention.

At the table, one of the beings was laying out the food prepared for the dinner. Nothing ever seemed to flip Kaia's stomach; she'd already seen enough in her lifetime for that to happen but beside her, she could feel Poe grow warm and begin to sweat at what was admittedly a grotesque combination of food but nonetheless, they couldn't risk offending the villagers lest the entire trip would be a waste. She elbowed Poe in the groin and continued to smile kindly at those seated across from her. Finn shifted uncomfortably and threw his hand over his mouth- _stars, men can't stomach anything, can they?_ She thought to herself as she felt Finn's stomach began to churn, threatening to spill out of his throat at any second.

She began to slow her breathing and closed her eyes for a few moments, focusing on the pulse of the Force, connecting with it, intertwining her entire being with everything else around her. Reaching out, she felt the Force flowing through Poe and Finn, settling their stomachs, easing their blood pressure, calming their bodies back into a state where they wouldn't be a threat to this mission. When she opened her eyes, Finn had stopped rocking and the sweat beading on Poe's forehead had already eased. They both looked at Kaia with furrowed brows, confused as to what had just happened to them. One moment they were feeling ill and the next, a warmth took over their body and made them feel completely at ease with what they were about to eat.

 _"Damn Jedi,"_ Poe mumbled under his breath.

 _Don't make me resort to mind tricks, Dameron,_ Kaia thought to herself, smiling all the while for the tribe members. Meanwhile, the one whom Kaia had grown to know as the elder of the tribe began to speak to them.

" _Travelers, we thank you for accepting the incredibly gracious honor of breaking bread with us,"_ the elder began. _"It is not often we bring guests into our walls, and we hope you enjoy the meal set before you."_

* * *

Kaia had not even been able to enjoy the meal or judge the food herself as the entire meal she was focused on helping Poe and Finn swallow the vile food down. She'd eaten worse in the field and she figured that a commander would have a stronger stomach but he was truly proving her otherwise. She made a mental note to never let this one go. Kaia needed something to shut him up quickly.

It seemed as though as soon as it had started, the food began to ran out and the awkward small talk made over the dinner table grew fainter and fainter until it was just an awkward silence that settled over the room, only the whispers of the tribe waiting at the entrance of the cavern to be heard.

 _"As for the explorer,"_ the elder began, causing Finn to jump from the rather sudden breach of silence. Kaia lifted her eyes and began to listen curiously. " _he was after knowledge of all things in this universe and helped us gain more insight on our tribe's most sacred object. An object that is forbidden to be revealed to those outside of the tribe."_

"…and how does that help us?" Poe asked. Kaia swiftly elbowed him once more in the ribs to shut up him and the elder stared at the pilot with disdain before returning her attention to Kaia.

Kaia glanced at Poe. What were they talking about? Kaia knew that the elder had liked her very much when they spoke and she tried as best as she could to make a good impression on the tribe without resorting to mind tricks but she didn't think she'd be worthy of seeing some tribal secret. When she had told Kaia that the explorer they were searching for had come here and helped the tribe with something more important to them than their own lives, she wasn't sure what to expect.

She was about to find out.

Poe nodded at her reassuringly, almost imperceptible and certainly invisible to those around him. She turned back around to the elder who had a serious look set upon her face. Behind her, a curtain that had been invisible to them was being drawn apart by two of the tribe members- while Kaia had sensed something behind the wall she hadn't looked closely enough to notice the curtain that camouflaged against the green rock perfectly. When the curtain was drawn it revealed a delicate and ornate stone stand carved from the rock of the mountain. Ignoring the entire shrine dedicated to the object on the stand, Kaia stared at what they'd revealed. Perched atop the stand in a delicately carved frame was a beige oval with scintillating flecks of a substance that Kaia did not recognize. Invisible to others and only visible to Kaia, she saw a faint glow emanating from the middle, yellow and orange and full of warmth… it was an egg. An egg with a lifeform within, a lifeform so strong she could visibly see it's Force signature.

_"We are the Crèche. This egg is our charge, our purpose, our salvation. We protect and nurture it, and in return we bathe in its radiance. Its presence guides our lives. It holds salvation itself—the savior unborn. Someday the egg will hatch, and we, or our descendants, shall receive our reward for keeping it safe these many generations."_

_"The explorer helped us to communicate with the egg and further understand its words and wishes. In exchange for information about his whereabouts, we ask that the Jedi communicates with it for us."_

Kaia furrowed her brows- whoever the Resistance contained the ability to communicate with the egg? She made a mental note to press Poe for the identity of who they were searching for when they departed from this planet. She was beginning to grow tired of being kept in the dark and grew less and less opposed to prying the information out of his mind rather than waiting for him to tell her himself. But at the moment, there was something more pressing-

"How did you know I was a Jedi?" Kaia questioned carefully. She knew she had to tread delicately around the Creche for they contained information that Poe wanted desperately and they could not leave Ovanis without it. Similar to her situation with Poe, she did not want to intrude their minds for the information, but she was not entirely opposed to it. The elder smiled slyly.

_"The Creche know more than you may think, Jedi. What will it be-"_

The Elder was cut off by a _loud_ and familiar shriek.

The crowd outside of the mouth of the tunnel split apart in murmurs and shouts as an orange and white astromech droid forced itself through the throng of tribe members, shrieking and screaming like no other. Poe immediately jumped to his feet in concern for his droid- "What's wrong, buddy?"

After listening to only a few seconds of whistles and beeps both Kaia and Finn had jumped to their feet, concern etched on their faces as the rest of the Creche in the cavern behaved similarly and began to surround the Elder protectively.

The First Order was here.

He had located a tracker on the _Nightfall,_ and now their entire mission was compromised.

Poe whipped around to face Kaia and Poe. Kaia already had her hand on her blaster. "What do we do?" She asked the commander. "Do they know we're in here?"

 _YES!_ The droid shrieked, causing the Creche to flinch.

 _"What does the machine say?"_ One of the Elder's guards shouted rather roughly at Kaia. She turned to face the Elder and the guards with concern on her face. Turning back to Poe, a plan filled her head. She wasn't sure it would work, but she was certainly sure it would be better than anything else anybody could come up with.

"Poe, you need to distract them," Kaia hissed, gripping Poe's shoulder tightly. Finn stood with his blaster drawn, listening to the Jedi intently. One of the guards rushed outside and began to urge the tribe to grab their weapons in order to defend their residence, and more importantly, the Elder's cave where the temple for the Egg resided.

"And what are you going to do?" Finn asked. She glanced at Finn.

"I'm going to get the kriffing egg to hatch."

* * *

"Ah, General Hugs, my buddy!" Poe greeted informally with a large grin on his face. His hands were cuffed and he was being escorted towards the familiar red-headed general of the First Order. "I'm surprised to see the First Order thinks you're small enough to send down to this empty ass plan-"

"Enough, Dameron. We know why you're here. Thanks to you, the First Order will soon be one step away from finding-"

"Finding yourself a woman to finally getting some action with? A title that means something, maybe?" Poe joked. One of the Stormtroopers guiding him hit him in the back with the butt of their blaster, causing him to grunt and stare at Hux with indignance. Hux's arms were crossed behind his back and he clenched his jaw but made no other outward show of anger or annoyance at the Resistance pilot. After all, he had him right where he wanted him. Perhaps Hux should've noticed how suspicious it was how easily Dameron was captured, or the fact that he was here alone, but as always, his excitement got the better of him and he got too tangled up in the notion of being more successful in the Supreme Leader's eyes than the wretched _Ren._

"-finding the end of this war and the destruction of the pitiful Resistance," Hux spat. Poe chuckled.

"The Resistance will never die. We've got plenty of spots open for some dishwashers if you wanna join."

"I would rather chew off my own arm," Hux responded indignantly. His gaze ventured from Poe and fell upon the nearest Stormtrooper.

"Find out where he is. If they do not comply, burn their pathetic temple. If they do… burn it anyways," Hux said. Poe stared at the red-head's face. He'd had countless encounters with the ruthless First Order general and every time he thought he couldn't hate Hux even more, the pathetic excuse for a man seemed to find a way to get under Poe's skin even more. He was cruel, he was merciless, and Poe couldn't quite understand how a human could do the things that Hux had done without beating an eye. If there was ever an end to this war, Leia knew that there was only one person who'd be allowed to have Hux's head, and that was Poe Dameron.

The Stormtrooper nodded and began to jog in the direction of the village where Stormtroopers were barking orders at the villagers and guiding them into small groups, separated from each other so they would not be a threat. The Creche cowered in fear, frightened for their lives with no way to defend themselves after the Troopers had taken their weapons away. Some wept for the well-being of the Egg, others were just frightened for their own lives. Not many of them knew what Kaia planned on doing with the egg, and all of the villager's stomachs churned for the fate of their beloved Egg and their beloved Elder.

Poe stared at Hux's face with a flame of hatred in his eyes. Hux opened his mouth to say something else to the commander but all of a sudden, they heard screaming. A _lot_ of screaming. At once, Poe and his Stormtrooper captors whipped around only to hear screaming, screeching, and the roar of Flametrooper's flamethrowers. A wash of orange and red light began to cover all of the surfaces of the cave as fire began to roar, creating a positive feedback loop as the screaming and screeching and now _roaring_ grew louder and louder-

Taking advantage of the distraction, Poe slipped off the handcuffs that he'd been slowly working on since the moment the Troopers had put on- _Hux, you've really gotta train them better, these idiots have no idea what they're doing-_ Poe thought to himself as the metal clanked to the ground. Before the Troopers could notice Poe had swept one of their legs out from under them while simultaneously ripping their blaster from their grip, shooting their partner and then them, both falling to the ground. Hux reached for his own blaster tucked in his waistband but all too soon, Poe had shot the general in the leg without even looking before immediately taking off towards the village to investigate the roar of the fire, screams of the Creche, and noises from something he wasn't quite sure he wanted to see. Hux fell to the floor with a scream, clutching his legs and face turning red as he shouted for assistance.

As Poe approached the village he began to pass by Creche villagers fleeing from the fire and the noise, and much to his surprise, some of the Stormtroopers had even turned and began to flee from the scene. The man he was, he continued to run straight towards the fray and he began to hope that Kaia was alright. Finn, too. And if his droid even had so much as a mark on him-

" _IT'S NOT THEIR SAVIOR!"_ Finn shouted, hurtling around a corner and nearly crashing into Poe. He had his blaster clutched close to his chest, ready to fire, but it was clear he was running from something- "DUCK!"  
  
Poe did not question Finn due to the intensity in his voice and ducked alongside Finn while Finn aimed his blaster at something in the air- something _big,_ something _huge,_ something flying and making a deafening roar that shook the foundations of the village and caused rocks to began to fall from the ceiling of the cave. Whatever it was flew over Finn and Poe while Finn concentrated his blaster fire on it and Poe removed his hands from over his head to stare at whatever the _hell_ it was- he had no idea. It was a flying monster of some sort, dark and filled with a combination of fur and thick leather for skin and making a _horrendous_ noise with swords for claws, swooping at Troopers and villagers alike with pure menace-

"WHAT IS THAT?" Poe shouted to Finn over the ruckus. The creature had a band of Troopers with both blasters and flamethrowers chasing after it, shooting and recklessly spraying flames everywhere. Tucked against a wall, Poe and Finn were currently the _least_ of the Troopers concerns. "WHERE'S KAIA?"

Finn didn't have time to respond to the question as he continued to fire at the beast. Poe's eyes swept the village visible around him but she was nowhere in sight, and neither was his droid. "FINN-" Poe grabbed his friend's shoulder and forced him to turn and face Poe to listen to his words. "Listen- I'm going to find Kaia and Beebee- you have to get to the ship and get ready to _get the hell out of here,_ alright? Try to make contact with the others- GO!" Poe shouted over the sounds of the chaos. Finn nodded, wiped some of the sweat beading on his forehead, and began to fight beast and Stormtrooper alike along his path back to the _Nightfall._

Gripping his blaster tightly, Poe rounded the corner where Finn had come from and saw absolute _destruction_ all around. Chunks of rock were lying everywhere from where the beast must've hit the sit of the caverns, destroying the smoothness the Creche had created. While the rock itself could not catch on fire, quite literally everything else in the village seemed to be burning with an intense, hot glow. Villagers rushed around and attempted to put the fires out while others huddled over the wounded- Poe could only pray that none had died while he pushed through to find Kaia and his droid. All of the Troopers had seemed to focus their attention on the beast, which was now wreaking absolute havoc on Hux's soldiers, much to Poe's delight.

He found Kaia.

The largest building of the village which was not carved out of rock but built out of wood was completely on fire- there were still villagers streaming out of it. Children. It had been a school. Poe's stomach churned as he listened to the terrified screams-

Kaia was at the base of the village, down on one knee, body shaking and straining as both of her hands were lifted in the air, palms facing the burning building. He wasn't entirely sure what she was doing but the more he stared he realized that she was keeping the building from collapsing from the inferno entirely, giving everybody inside a chance to escape, but also placing herself directly underneath the flames.

Villagers continued to stream out of the building and go back in to help carry the children back out, infants and toddlers and older children alike- Poe glanced away from some of their limp bodies and prayed that they had only passed out from fright. He wanted to rush to her side, he wanted to help, but he had never felt so… helpless. What could he do? He had no powers like Kaia did to hold the structure up with some invisible force, nor did he know the layout of the building nearly as well as the villagers did-

_Shit._

The structure was beginning to groan and Kaia's entire body was trembling under the strain of holding up the building for so long-

"ARE THEY ALL OUT?" Poe shouted over the roar of the flames to one of the adults holding a crying child. The villager did not speak but only pointed at a single adult carrying an infant down the final step of stairs- the last of the Creche to emerge. He glanced back over to Kaia, whose shoulders were sagging more and more under the strain.

Back to the villager. Almost out.

Back to Kaia. Almost out.

He looked above her, to the flames licking dangerously close to her head- if she could not hold any longer, it would come crashing down directly on her.

In a flash of movement, Poe dropped his blaster and sprinted as fast as he ever had before directly at Kaia.

He didn't quite remember tackling Kaia out of the way- it had all happened so fast- the heat was blistering and it burned and singed the edges of his jacket and his hair as he swept Kaia out from underneath the structure just as the final villager had stepped into safety.

Flames and heat.

But she was in his arms, and she was safe. 


	11. Recovery

"Are you going to be able to make it back to the ship?" Kaia had sat up but her face was pallid and there was a sheen of sweat over her face- the carbon freezing had certainly regressed the progress she'd made throughout her lifetime practicing the Force as what she had done had taken more effort than she'd ever remembered. Poe's hand was rested on her back, supporting her- she didn't have time to think right now. They had to leave. But first, she wanted to clean up the mess she made. Her body was screaming, her muscles were aching- every inch of her was begging to lay back down on the stone and fall asleep but she couldn't.

"Yea- Poe, I-"

"What _is_ that thing?" He asked in disbelief.

"A parasite- it is not their savior. It is a menace from the depths of this planet, how your contact could not sense that I do not know but it wants _death."_

Poe's mind raced as he searched Kaia's face for answers- they needed to leave before the First Order was able to call out for backup- hell, he didn't even know if the X-wings were still safely in the air or whether his friends had been murdered by Hux's forces. _More blood on my hands,_ Poe thought to himself. He forced the thought down into the recesses of his mind, knowing it would only surface again at night when he was laying in bed, unable to sleep while he stared at the ceiling in whatever darkness he found himself in. The dead villagers, the possibility of the deaths of his closest friends- stars, if Poe had stuck with Finn then even Kaia… he swallowed the thoughts down, knowing that the exact moment was not a time for him to get stuck on this loop of negativity.

"I can't even get a thank you?"

Kaia glared at Poe. "Is that _seriously_ what you're thinking about right now?"

Poe chuckled and stood up, reaching his arm down. Her voice made him feel at ease. Her presence. And she wasn't even trying, at least not now.

With an annoyed look on her face Kaia took the offering and he pulled her to her feet. She was shaky and weak and exhausted but she had to do this, _they_ had to do this, the tribe had not asked for this chaos and destruction and terror. They had brought it, and so it was on their shoulders to fix it. The pair immediately began to jog towards the entrance of the village where they'd come from- Kaia's eyes were fixated on the beast in the distance, it's black form constantly barraged by blaster fire and streams of the wretched flame that Kaia had nearly killed herself to keep away. She focused on the Force to keep her on her feat, to keep her from fainting from exhaustion- it took more concentration than ever to draw on it and utilize the energy it gave her.

She reached for her blaster but realized she must have dropped it back at the building when she'd dropped everything to hold the burning school up-

"HOLY KRIFF!" Poe shouted. Kaia's attention was drawn to whatever Poe was looking at and when she laid her eyes upon it, her heart clenched painfully.

Another creature, nearly identical to the newborn, but twice the size.

Fully grown.  
  
An adult.

This creature, however, was the same murky green color as the rock of the planet was. Kaia had not sensed this coming; no, not at all, but she supposed it was foolish to thing that there was not a parent to the creature that was currently menacing all those who had been foolish enough to enter this cave.

Kaia had encouraged the creature to leave the egg with the Force, gently goading it into joining the world and leaving the shelter of its shell- she had watched it carve itself out of its chamber with its swords for claws with wonder in her eyes. The tribe had been bowing down and performing a ritual of sorts as Kaia slowly got the beast to emerge from the egg. When it had emerged, it had been calm. Soaking everything in. Staring at each and every villager before brutally tearing apart the guards of the Elder.  
  
Kaia had thrown herself over the Elder and pushed the beast away with the Force but that only sent the beast flying out of the entrance of the cavern, and that had been when all hell had broken loose.

And now, there were two of them.

She watched in horror as they came together to undoubtedly worked hand in hand to bring death upon them all…

Until they met in midair in a flurry of wings, shrieks, and claws.

"They're… fighting," Poe said in disbelief beside her. Kaia nodded before grabbing his hand and dragging him back into the village. "Kaia, we need to leave, now!"

"We can't leave without finding out where the target is, or all of this destruction will have been for nothing."

Poe knew that Kaia would not listen to any rebuttals and so he followed her back through the village, back through the pain and death, back towards the cave where they'd been sitting not long before, so utterly oblivious to what they would bring upon this village.

Inside the cavern, the Elder was weeping over the bodies of the guards.

Poe ignored the blood and viscera all over the walls of the room, covering the very table they had eaten at. It took him everything he had to not throw up the food he had already found absolutely foul and grotesque.

Some of the other members of the tribe surrounded the Elder and consoled her in her grief- Kaia recognized some of them from the school and she came to a stop before the scene, staring down sadly at those who had so bravely gave their lives for their Elder.

All eyes turned to Kaia and Poe- Poe instinctively recoiled, prepared to be cursed at for bring all of this to them- but they were met with none of that.

" _They tell me you saved the school?"_ The Elder moaned, voice hoarse from the tears. Kaia nodded. The Elder reached up and gripped Kaia's hand tightly. " _I can never repay you."_

"I'm sorry your village has been destroyed and your savior was not what it seemed," Kaia said, nearly a whisper.

 _This is why I left._ The Jedi were supposed to be peacekeepers, supposed to protect life in the galaxy but leading up to Kaia's departure, they had begun to leave trails of dead, slain by lightsaber or by enemies, it did not matter. She could not stand the hypocrisy. And here she was, repeating history.

" _It seems as though we misinterpreted the prophecies- the egg was not our savior; rather, it would bring our savior to light. He is out there now, protecting us from this foul beast who inhabited our homes and took for granted our compassion. You could not have known."_

Both Kaia and Poe remained silent.

 _"The explorer left our home for Ossus. Any more than that, I do not know. I wish you the best of luck on your endeavors. Our tribe will never forget your names for bringing our true savior to us,"_ the Elder croaked as she squeezed Kaia's hand one last time. Those surrounding the Elder began to chorus their thank yous while Kaia smiled softly at them. Instead of choosing departing words she closed her eyes and released a wave of calm over them with the Force. The effort nearly sent her to her feet. Poe felt her grow unsteady and put his arm around her shoulders to prevent her from falling.

 _Ossus._ Kaia knew that name but she was too close to fatigue to remember where it came from. Her body was exhausted.

The next few minutes were a blur.

They ran by fire and blaster fire, blistering heat and shouts but Poe's arm never left from helping Kaia stumble and run across the floor of the cavern towards their ship. Her own heartbeat and the rush of her blood was the only thing truly registering in her ears. Whether the X-wings in the cave blasting away at the First Order forces were real or just figments of a dream she did not know, nor did she feel the need to find the truth. They were there, and that was all that mattered.

Poe nearly carried her up the ramp of the ship. And then, she slept.

* * *

_Flashes of white and blue, and an endless amount of laughter. Two white beams blinding in Kaia's eyes faded to memories of recklessness, fierceness, a surprising amount of stubbornness but most of all, an overwhelming sense that as long as this presence was by Kaia's side, everything was going to be quite alright._

_Days spent sparring and training and adrenalin-rush filled adventures through the galaxy, the night fading away in conversations about life and the Force and those who surrounded them. Helping each other dampen the forbidden crushes they would develop, meditate with each other to stay focused._

_Ahsoka._

Kaia's eyes opened.

She blinked the sleep away and sat up from where her body had been laying. She woke refreshed, her muscles and body no longer screaming, her mind cleared and the fatigue washed away into memory. She could recognize that she had somehow made her way to the bottom bunk of the one set of bunkbeds in the ship, covered in a blanket. The jacket she'd been wearing was gone and she shivered, but the air on her arms felt refreshing. She felt a slight sting on the back of her neck from where the blistering heat of the fire had touched her exposed skin, and the skin on her left arm was scraped and bloodied from where Poe had tackled her to the cave floor.  
  
Still, she had escaped with her life, and many of the villagers had not.

"Good morning," a voice said from beside her as she sat up, voice dreadfully cheery considering the scene they'd just left. Kaia turned her head to see Poe seated next to the bunk in a chair he must have procured from the storage hold of the ship. His face looked up from the data pad he had been looking at but the moment he'd made eye contact with Kaia he turned it off and set it underneath the cheer, leaning forward towards Kaia. "Feel better?"

Rubbing the back of her neck gingerly, Kaia nodded. Poe spotted the red, angry skin on the back of her neck and leaned forward even further, brushing the hair away from the back of her neck. Kaia flinched away and glanced at Poe with wary eyes until his eyes softened. "I wanted to look at this but I didn't want to wake you."

 _Oh._ Kaia watched with furrowed brows as Poe disappeared from the bunk area and returned momentarily with a cannister of bacta. "May I?" He asked, opening it and showing it to Kaia. She sat for a few moments, staring at the pilot who was being so strangely kind. She rubbed the back of her neck and her skin screamed from the burns. They would heal on their own, but it would take time.  
  
She nodded.  
  
Poe sat back down in his chair and scooted it across the floor to get as close to the bunk as he could. She flinched at the screeching noises and lowered her hands as Poe lifted his; she shivered when his fingers brushed against her skin to gently move her hair over her shoulder to expose the back of her neck and, with some bacta he had poured onto his hand he began to gingerly apply the salve to the wound. Kaia flinched as the cool liquid made contact and the familiar sting of bacta began to settle in, but it was a wonderful kind of pain, the kind of pain you feel when removing a sliver from your body.

She closed her eyes.

The wonderful kind of pain she had felt when Obi-wan had healed her wounds. He'd been quite proficient in the art of Force healing, a skill that most in the Jedi Temple had not quite been able to grasp. Feeling her skin and bones shift as he healed her injuries had brought her pain but it had also brought her relief. She knew this pain. It only brought more hurt, remembering what she had left in the past. What was now lost.

When she opened her eyes again, she had recognized that all of the burns were now covered in bacta and she could feel the medicine making quick work of the relatively minor burns. It was only now that Kaia noticed the goosebumps covering her arms, and after Poe shifted his hand once more over her skin it sent yet another shiver down her spine. His hand lingered but a moment longer on her skin before he pulled it away back to settle on his lap. "Thank you."

"It's about time I heard those words from you," Poe said, his grin growing wider and wider when Kaia looked at him with indignance on her face. She shook her head.

" _Thank you,_ Poe Dameron, for being a decent human being. You act as though if you were not in the same position I would not help you," Kaia snapped, giving Poe more joy at her annoyance. Working as positive feedback, Kaia grew more and more irritated until she lurched forward and attempted to playfully punch Poe's shoulder but he grabbed her wrist a little harder than he had intended to, causing her momentum to come crashing forward into Poe. The chair tipped backwards onto the ground and she fell on top of Poe who was falling onto the ground at the same time and so they both fell to the floor together in a fit of laughter, the pain from the healing burns on the back of Kaia's neck and scrapes forgotten in the joy of the moment. For those few fleeting seconds they forget of their pains, of the memories and tragedies that plagued their minds. They forgot of the entire galaxy until everything came crashing down on them at the sound of Finn's voice.

"Oh- _dank ferrik!"_ The man shouted when he'd walked around the corner and spotted the two tumbling on the floor together. Kaia's reality came crashing down on her and she quickly untangled herself from Poe, jumping to her feet at a record speed whilst brushing herself off.

"We fell," she said briefly, any traces of laughter and joy fading from her face. Meanwhile, on the floor, Poe stared at her with furrowed brows and a confused look on his face as to how she could have changed moods so quickly.

"Right, you fell," Finn said suspiciously, eyes glancing between Kaia and his friend laying on the floor. Shaking his head, he continued to speak. "Anyways, Poe, I'm ready to kick your ass in sabaac now."

* * *

Poe had only lasted two and a half games of sabaac with Finn while Kaia had taken to sitting in the cockpit and monitoring the controls and sensors on the control panel. Finn could see the distraction in his friend, and quite frankly, it was beginning to both irritate and worry him- never before had Poe been like this on a mission. Typically sabaac would entertain them for days on end as they never failed to create clever schemes in order to beat each other, drinking the nights away in laughter. Poe was his best friend, his brother, and something was clearly bothering him but he had not yet gauged what it was. And in the middle of this third sabaac game, Finn was winning too easily- Poe was not even attempting to put up a solid fight. Instead of trying to discern what was bouncing around inside of the pilot's head, Finn promptly switched the game off before announcing his fatigue and retreating to the back of the ship where the bunks were.

Poe, on the other hand, was not quite sure what to do. The fatigue and stress from the mission, though successful, was beginning to catch up to him once the inevitable guilt began to seep through the outside of him. He had to continually insist to Beebee that he was alright but he wasn't. The droid just could not keep his mouth shut and Poe did not want to take the chance of him mentioning something to Kaia or Finn. The last thing Poe wanted was to be coddled. He sat at the table for a few moments, running his hand through his hair that desperately needed a wash.

He would not mind Kaia as company.

She had interesting stories to tell. Poe had not forgotten the night they had spent on the entrance ramp together in the middle of the icy tundra, sharing stories with each other from galaxies that, for all intents and purposes, could not have been more different.

And there was a quite calming presence about her. At first he had just assumed it was her prowess with the Force but something deep within his gut told him that there was something else, some other lingering emotions that he had not come to terms with yet. He grew close with most people he went on missions with, but this… this seemed different. How different he could not yet tell.

He only wondered if she felt something similar.

In the cockpit, Kaia had been mindlessly watching the stars flash by at hyperspeed outside of the ship. She could have spent hours staring off into the void; a reason why hyperspeed could be dangerous if you did not monitor yourself around it. Kaia just found it an easy path to meditation though in this hour, she could not find the strength nor peace to do it. There was something plaguing her mind, something that caused her Jedi roots to grow up and sprout through her body, clench her mind and her entire being-

"Finn's a kriffing cheater," Poe said with a sigh, falling back into the co-pilot's chair and swiveling it to face Kaia. She was drawn from her trance and mirrored his movements, turning the chair to face him. She had turned the lights off in the cockpit but the flashes from the hyper lane and the dim glow from the various control panels and scanners provided enough light for the both of them to be visible enough to each other. Poe's hard was full of dust that had fallen down from the tremors of the caves on Ovanis, the natural oils rising up from his scalp from not having had a refresher for the past few days. He'd managed to wipe his face clean with water, she noticed, but he had not scrubbed enough to get rid of the soot and stains of smoke from the fires. There was still a pink line on the bottom of his chin, the bacta on the _Nightfall_ not high enough quality to chase away scars. Unlike Kaia, he'd been intuitive enough to pack a pair of extra clothes and instead of sitting in singed fabric that smelled of must and soot his clothes created a stark contrast between the man who desperately needed a shower. Kaia glanced down at her own clothes. She'd likely just have to throw them away upon return; they were torn and tattered from falling, burned and singed from the fires, and there was more than one spot where blasters must've skidded across the muddy brown fabric.

It was sad, in a way. These clothes were the last thing she had left of her old life, of life before Lallani had sentenced her to a carbonite prison.

Poe noticed Kaia's eyes traveling over his appearance. "Like what ya see?"

"Quite the opposite," Kaia huffed, crossing her arms and turning away. She was not embarrassed; no, more surprised than anything. _Surprised that a scruffy, ragged commander of a rebellion, a cocky starfighter could still seem so… attractive._

The thought passed fleetingly, in one end of her mind and out of the other while she called on the Force to clear her thoughts. No attachments. No matter how the Jedi had failed Kaia had stoutly clung to the idea that attachments were where things grew wrong.

Or were they?

Perhaps if the Jedi had known how to navigate those attachments, those emotions-

_No, Kaia. Stop._

"I take it you lost?" Kaia said, changing the subject rather abruptly.

"Does it count if I lost when he was cheating?"

"It most certainly does," Kaia commented with a smirk on her face. Of course, she thought otherwise, but she did not feel like giving him the satisfaction. While he was reeling for some sort of snarky response, no doubt, her smile softened as she reached out and felt Poe's energy.

She sensed… grief. Stress. Anxiety, the overwhelming feeling of never being enough, the overwhelming fear of the void of the war, the endless tomb… and conflict. He was conflicted about something. Her face fell more and more as she soaked his energy in. She could not let him feel like this. No. She reached out gently and tried to provide some sort of comforting sheet over his body but his feelings were nearly too strong to cover; _stars, he's good at hiding what he feels._ She felt a sudden block, a wall that forced her to jolt to a stop before she remembered what Leia had done to his mind. Kaia was surprised. The emotions had to have run deep to have been hidden behind the recesses of the protections Leia had set on the pilot's mind. These were too much for her to deal with the Force. So, she did not. Perhaps they'd be addressed another time. "I'll send some scouts out in a few days to reassess what happened with the village, send supplies to the survivors," Poe offered weakly. He was staring at the floor. He felt just as guilty as Kaia for all of the needless deaths. _He should have let her reach out through the Force to find him, and now all of those innocents were dead because of him. The lives of his friends were at risk because of_ him.

Kaia shook her head. "There's no need. They'll be alright. They're grieving, and far more died than should have, but they are already healing. Their savior brought a new peace and hope into their lives they needed." While Poe had been playing sabaac with Finn she'd taken the advantage of the peace and quiet to meditate. More specifically, to feel for Ovanis and feel for the lifeforms that inhabited the caves there. They were hurt, because of Kaia, but they were alive. Better than all of them slaughtered, she supposed.

Both of them wanted to apologize to the other, to admit that the failure of a mission was their fault but neither of them could find the words. They both knew they were blaming themselves, and similarly, they both thought the other was innocent.

Ironically similar for a Resistance starfighter and an ex-Jedi, weren't they?

* * *

Sitting in silence with each other had done a remarkable job on picking up their spirits if only a little, and somehow a conversation began between the two about what things had been like before the Empire. They delved into the stories of the Jedi Order as Kaia had knew it and lived through, all of the Masters, Knights, Padawans and younglings she had walked beside in the Temple on Coruscant. She regaled the tales of her and Obi-wan alongside Anakin and Ahsoka, reckless pawns for the light side of the force spreading like a flame through the galaxy. Poe was most interested in hearing about Anakin. He'd heard stories, whispers of who Darth Vader had been before he was the most terrifying figure in the galaxy in the past few hundred years but of course, nobody he'd met had ever met Anakin Skywalker. Only Darth Vader. When the General had still been a New Republic Senator, those who opposed her seeded out the information her and Luke and only those who knew them best kept hidden close to their chest. He remembered when the scandal had come out. The esteemed Princess of Alderaan and the only Jedi Master in the galaxy were the children of Darth Vader.

Poe had still been a kid then. So young, and maybe not innocent but just blind and ignorant to the horrors that the war would bring. And here he was, a commander at the head of it.

They talked deep into the depths of the night once more. They heard Finn rustling around in the cabin behind him and more than once, he poked his head in to check the status of Poe and Kaia but they were alright, more than alright, actually. They were enjoying themselves for once. Beebee had brought them food at one point only because he would not stop pestering Poe for something to do. Kaia really liked the little droid. As a Jedi she had not paid much mind to droids; not like Anakin had loved his little R2 and protocol droid so dearly. She wondered what happened to them. Though she could not recall their names, she'd always liked them slightly more than other droids solely due to Anakin's devotion to them.

It made sense, Anakin's downfall.

She'd seen cracks in the light, the angry tendrils of the dark side seeping through but that happened to every Jedi, she thought. But the connections and attachments he made were too strong.

In the end, Kaia supposed they should have seen his turning coming. That only made it all the more tragic.

Poe told Kaia about the spice-running he was caught up in, the deep thread of criminal networks, the bounty hunters he had to evade, the craziness that had emerged from that form of lifestyle. He told her about the New Republic, and flying for them, and eventually, following the General out of the New Republic and into the Resistance. He wouldn't talk about anything before spice-running, though.

He had reached out and grabbed her hands when it had become too hard for her to talk about Ahsoka and Anakin and Obi-wan. Her friends. Her family.

His palms, leathery and calloused from the years and years of working on ships and participating in tomfoolery encapsulated her softer skin, keeping them warm in the chill of the ship and providing her comfort where the Force could not.

And so, during the stretch of that agonizingly long flight, spilling secrets to each other in the dark, Kaia thought that maybe, just maybe she could begin to healthily embrace her feelings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo next chapter is when things will start getting a *little* hot and heavy/explicit. What's an AO3 story without some of that?


	12. Reality

_A ray of sunlight._ Warmth and brightness and hope- Kaia had not expected Rey to have advanced this far while she'd been gone. It had been nearly two weeks and in that time, Rey had become a beacon in the light side. Kaia approached her where she had been meditating in the jungle behind the base, hovering several feet off of the ground with rocks floating around her body in a rather interesting pattern. _Stars, she's strong._ Kaia was frightened she would not be enough to train her. At this point she surmised that Rey contained so much more raw strength than Kaia could ever imagine, though much more untamed. _Kaia was nothing special._ An ordinary Jedi, torn from the past and inserted into somewhere she did not belong, somewhere she should have never been.

Rey had sensed Kaia approaching immediately and her body warmed and her face lit up like it had not in a while. "Kaia!" Rey greeted warmly as she delicately lowered herself to the ground. Kaia offered a warm smile to the girl but Rey had already rushed in for a hug and though surprised, Kaia embraced the girl back. _She sensed something-_ she did not know what. There was something _with_ Rey, some energy she could not entirely recognize. It wasn't evil.

"I apologize for being away for so long but it seems that you've made incredible progress under Leia," Kaia said, both of her hands on Rey's shoulders. Rey had a wide grin on her face, the widest in all of the galaxy. Kaia hoped nothing would beat that out of here any time soon.

"And you! I remembered what you told me before you left- the things you told me and showed me. The Jedi teachings." There was a quiver of excitement in the undertone of Rey's voice- she was curious. She was curious about the Jedi and their teachings and the power they possessed but Kaia did not have the heart right now to explain to Rey that she was not training her as a Jedi but simply as a Force user taking advantage of the beauty that the light side had to offer. Rey was too pure for the Jedi, too light- but again, there was something, something about her that was being expertly hidden from Kaia. Rey's face fell a little before she began to speak again. She was a bit disturbed at the lack of enthusiasm from Kaia but she wasn't sure what else to expect from somebody who left the Jedi Order. "Leia took in a cruiser full of war refugees that the First Order nearly decimated…"

"And?" Kaia questioned, urging Rey to continue.

"She had to reassign a sector of the barracks to them- your sector," Rey said, biting her bottom lip. Kaia scoffed. Rey had been worried about that? Kaia could've slept on a Bantha if she truly needed the rest. She would survive.

"That's quite alright. I'm sure Poe won't mind if I sleep inside of the _Nightfall,_ " Kaia concluded. The grin on Rey's face grew bit more mischievous.  
  
Oh, she could feel Poe and Kaia's feelings alright.

* * *

The interior of the _Nightfall_ seemed eerily silent to her now without the sounds of quiet chatter, Beebee's singing, and the thrum of the engines and the hyperdrive. Kaia was relieved to finally attain some quality rest but as she glanced around the interior of the ship, the memories of the two weeks they'd spent journeying together kept replaying in her mind. They had not even used her as a gunner after all. She did not have any possessions beside the clothes that were on her back and the blaster that the Resistance had commissioned her. And the clothes were garbage now, anyways. So, just the blaster. _Kriff._ The ship did not have a refresher and she was in _desperate_ need of a shower-

She sensed a Force signature entering the cabin of the ship and she turned. In a few moments Poe emerged from a corner and became visible to her- he was freshly shaven, his hair cleaned and combed and the soot and dirt scrubbed from his face. "You look like a new man."

"You sure don't," Poe said, giving her a quick up-and-down with his eyes. Kaia knew it had been innocuous, a testament to how battered she surely looked from the trip but when he laid his eyes like that upon her, her stomach flipped ever so lightly. _She did not think anybody had looked at her like that before._ She retained her composure, though, and never let it show.

"I'll be alr-"

"Just come use my 'fresher. About to go get dinner anyways- I can probably even find you some new clothes so you don't have to wear that bantha-fodder anymore," Poe quipped, beckoning for Kaia to follow him. She watched him stare at her hesitantly, waiting for her to follow. On one hand, she just needed some rest and she was not sure how she felt about using his own private refresher. On the other… she hated the feel of grime and soot on her, the bacta had left an obnoxious film on the back of her neck, and she just felt the need to _wash her sins away._ With a sigh, she took to following the pilot.

* * *

Poe hadn't intended to stay in his room- truly, he hadn't. He'd told Snap and Jess he'd meet them with their ragtag group of starfighters in the mess hall to get some real sustenance in their stomachs. He had watched Tallissan walk away in annoyance when he'd told them he was going to offer Kaia his refresher when he remembered that she wouldn't be able to cleanse herself in the _Nightfall._ He had meant to go- he had. But there was something so _intoxicating_ about the thought of Kaia in his refresher, something so alluring that created a desire in him that he hadn't felt since all of those months ago when he'd been seeing Tallisan, the desire that warmed a fire in his lower abdomen. He hadn't intended to do anything. He hadn't meant to lean onto the wall inside of his room outside of the refresher, listening to the patterns of the water as it fell onto Kaia, as she shifted and it hit the floor. He hadn't meant to intrude and listen to her humming softly to herself while she cleansed.

He hadn't meant to feel the fire in his chest, the familiar feel of warmth and desire flood his body, he hadn't.

_It was harmless, right? He would be relieved and nobody would be hurt._

His mind was not in the state for mental gymnastics for the feeling to reach down and grab the hardness growing in his trousers was too strong. Leaning his head back against the wall he slowly unzipped his pants before slipping his hand down and grabbing the shaft of his cock, already throbbing and hard from the images of Kaia bathing flashing through his head. With slow and steady breathing he began to rhythmically pump his length. Closing his eyes, he only saw the image of Kaia showering in his eyes, the curve of her figure, the supple ass that he'd already spent far too much time staring at when nobody was looking, the sharpness of her cheekbones- stars, it was almost too much for him to restrain himself from not opening the door and marching right into the shower.

He continued to rub his cock, hips swaying unconsciously now as if there was somebody in front of him. His breathing grew fast and shallow as pleasure from the nerve endings in his length flooded through his body, drowning him in their sweetness, flowing through his veins. Sweat began to lightly bead on his forehead and he could almost hear Kaia moaning his name from somewhere deep within his imagination, bowing down on her knees to wrap those pink little lips around the head of his cock-

It came all too soon and left all too fast but st _ars,_ it felt magnificent to release for the first time in two weeks. His entire body shuddered from his toes to his head and as quiet as he tried to be a small moan escaped from his lips as his cum pumped out from the tip of his length, spreading on the floor in front of him. His head had rocked back hard against the wall in the moment of pleasure. He rubbed his length for a few more strokes, milking the rest of the liquid out of him while the aftershocks of the finish racked through his body, through his nerves, through his brain.

He had wanted to do that _so badly_ the entire journey on the _Nightfall,_ and having Kaia around constantly had always just made things even harder for him.

After the moment had passed and the pleasure slowly ebbed away from his veins, a flood of overwhelming shame washed over him. She was so exposed, she trusted him- _kriff, could she FEEL THAT?_ Poe's head screamed as he began to clasp his pants back shut with one hand and with the other, grabbed a dirty shirt off of the floor nearby and quickly wipe up the evidence of the little dance he had had with himself. He felt like he'd just violated Kaia's privacy and he respected her too much for that- stars, she was truly going to hate him.

The funny thing? He felt embarrassed, but he didn't regret it.

* * *

When Kaia stepped out of the refresher the cool air sent goosebumps throughout her entire body but she did not care; it felt refreshing, and she finally felt clean once more.

Well, mostly clean.

In the middle of scrubbing soot and crusted blood off of her body, she had felt something rather strange occurring outside of the shower. She hadn't been surprised when Poe had been in his room- after all, it was his own private quarters, being a commander and all. What _had_ shocked her was when she'd felt his presence linger just outside of the bathroom door for a few moments and she had pondered for many minutes as to what he could be doing. Curiosity had gotten the better of her, though.  
  
And Kaia had felt what he was doing to himself.

Touching himself just outside of the shower, likely listening to her hum and bathe.

She had frozen at first, shocked at the revelation and his boldness and entirely unsure of what to do. The past version of Kaia, the Jedi version, likely would've stormed out of the shower and slapped him upside the head before rendering him unconscious with the Force and reporting him to his immediate supervisor- he wouldn't have had a Master, but he had a General-

_But the crazy thing was, she did not feel the urge to do that._

She had felt… curious. Curious as to why the pilot had been doing that in such close proximity to her, why he'd been standing outside of the shower door, why he'd been so keen to listen into what was occurring inside of the bathroom.

Curious as to touching yourself while thinking about somebody else.

Sure, especially as a young teenager Kaia had felt the urges herself, wild and uncontrollable when they'd first began. She would never forget the conversation Obi-wan had had with her- after all, he was a man and she had just been a girl but he'd been so calm, so smooth, so understanding, so professional. And so that began their lessons on how to control such urges and eventually, shove them so deep into her mind she'd never face the risk of them returning. Ever since those lessons with Obi-wan and the constant refining of her skills over the years, she'd been able to control her urges and she had never once let a man get the best of her. Even with Lallani (much to Lallani's annoyance) she'd been able to look past the urges and attraction of men to see the deeper picture.

Poe was different.

She still remembered how he'd managed to look so handsome even covered in burns and soot with greasy and dirty hair, torn clothing while he lifted her from the ground in the cave, sitting in the cockpit of the _Nightfall…_ for the first time since she'd been a young girl sitting in front of Obi-wan all those years ago when she hadn't been able to get another Padawan out of her head she felt what it was like to… to want somebody.

And it scared her.

Attachment lead to darkness, attachment lead to the Sith, attachment lead to the clouding of judgement and awful decisions…

Poe had laid a pair of his own clothing out on the refresher sink for her to utilize. He promised to go around the base and gather spare clothing from more people in the Resistance for her but for now, insisted that she wear his clothing.

_Did they smell like him?_

* * *

And so, Kaia stepped out of the refresher with her still-damp hair curling slightly in the intense humidity of D'Qar. The clothes were a bit baggy on her lithe figure but the muscles she'd attained from being a Jedi and then a bounty hunter afterwards had rendered her not much smaller than Poe and so the brown pants and the thin, collared off-white shirt fit her rather nicely. Though clean they smelled faintly of engine fuel and the familiar smell of Poe which she now knew to be the strongly-smelling soap that he kept in his shower. It nearly reminded her of the towering thick trees full of needles on snowier planets.

Poe was sitting on his bed, twiddling his thumbs and he lifted his head and met Kaia's eyes when she'd emerged- she bit her lip and decided not to mention anything. Perhaps it would be better off for the both of them; Kaia could not fall. She could not let him cloud her judgement. In this case, ignorance would be the best for both of them. If Poe never became aware of Kaia's feelings he could not be hurt by her decision to continue on as friends and co-workers rather than… than anything else. "I mean, they look better one me but those don't look so bad on you," Poe commented as he stood up, watching Kaia walk out of the refresher in crossed arms.

"Anything looks good on me," Kaia said, regretting it as soon as it came out of her mouth. Poe didn't say anything but he didn't have to- Kaia knew what he thought.

"I'm about to go get something to eat-" Poe began, but was cut off by Kaia.

"I'm alright, thanks. I'd like to speak to Rey before I get some sleep." She wanted to go with Poe. But she couldn't. She had to let the tension between the two of them ease- at least, fade from Kaia's mind.

Stars, Obi-wan was right. The temptation and lure of attraction was _so_ incredibly difficult to overcome.

But something in the _Nightfall_ the previous night had whispered thoughts into her ears, the idea that she was not a Jedi anymore, that she left them because they'd grown astray and perhaps… perhaps that was a part of it.

"Alright. I'm sure we'll run into each other at some point since you can't seem to stay away from me," Poe joked as Kaia made for the door. "And I want my clothes back!"

"Can't get rid of pests, Poe. That's exactly what you are."

* * *

Kaia did not know the layout of the base, nor did she know where Rey's residence was but she could feel Rey through the Force and her room seemed as though it was remarkably close to Poe's quarters. The tendrils of light and hoped pierced the Force and filled Kaia with warmth, the way other light side users could sense each other. It's why she'd nearly fallen to the ground after finding Leia after thinking all of the Jedi had been killed in the cruel hands of Palpatine. The halls were fairly busy with people streaming back to their rooms as the day winded into an end, the sun having already set. Overly friendly and enthusiastic hellos, especially now that she was associated with Poe Dameron, one of the most loved commanders at the base, were coming at her from left and right. She just wanted to find Rey.

Through the light and hope that Rey emanated into the Force through sheer raw strength, she sensed something else.

Something that did not belong her.  
  
She nearly faltered in her steps when she felt it. Something unnatural for this place, so contrasting to Rey's energy, something not meant to be on D'Qar. Something strong with the Force but entirely different from the strength Rey's possessed, but nearly the same altogether.

She approached the door that Rey was behind with building intensity, frightened and worried for her new friend, for the Resistance- _THIS WAS NOT RIGHT._

The door to Rey's quarters slid open and Kaia stopped in her stops.

 _Both_ heads in the room snapped to Kaia the moment the door opened. Rey's eyes were wide and filled with concern and worry, but it was not Rey that Kaia was focused on.

No. It was the man seated across from her.

His black, wavy hair was neatly kept to a nearly pristine level, and his eyes. Oh, those eyes. Those eyes belonged to Leia, even Kaia could see that but they lacked the same wisdom, the optimism, the hope that filled people when they looked at Leia. These eyes were twisted, dark, full of anger and pain and _the dark side emanating from this man-_ it was overwhelming, a black cloak thrown over Kaia twisting her heart in fear. She was in danger, and so was Rey.  
  
But, just as soon as Kaia had entered the room, she'd had but a few fleeting moments to look at the man before he disappeared. Disappeared directly into thin air.  
  
Now, Kaia looked at Rey. She had no words yet she rushed to the girl anyways, kneeling down to where she was sitting and placing her hands on her shoulders. Kaia did not need Rey to speak to know who the man was. It was Kylo Ren. He was the Sith plaguing the galaxy, the son of Han and Leia who Rey insisted felt conflict.

Kaia had sensed no conflict. She'd just sensed darkness.

"It's not what it seems," Rey said in a soft voice, nearly a whisper. Her eyes, wide with panic, stared up into Kaia. She sensed no lies within her words or even within her energy but she had witnessed how strong the girl was. Perhaps she could hide it from Kaia- "Kaia- Kaia please!"

Kaia had already straightened and begun to make for the door again. She had to warn Leia, she needed to speak to Poe-

The door slammed shut in front of Kaia and she whipped around to see Rey's outstretched hand fall to her side. "You brought him here!" Kaia shouted now, though keeping her voice low enough so that any passerbys would not be able to catch the conversation.  
  
"No- Kaia, you need to listen to me. This isn't what you think-"

"Then what is it, Rey? You just invited a Sith- a dark side user, a general of the First Order into the heart of the Resistance! What am I supposed to think?" Kaia shouted, taking a step closer to Rey.

"He doesn't know where we are. He can only see me," Rey whispered.

Kaia stopped. She had never heard of anything like this before. She opened her mouth to talk but nothing came out for she had nothing to say; she was entirely and utterly confused.

"He wasn't here?"

Rey shook her head. "Ren and I-" Rey swallowed. "I've never told anybody but this but the first night he tried to go into my mind, something…. Something happened. Some sort of connection was made. And… and I don't know what it is but I can't stop it and neither can he."

"You can't keep him out?"

Rey shook her head once more. "No matter how hard he or I try."

Kaia bit her bottom lip and furrowed her brows. In all of her years she'd never seen or heard anything like this before- to traverse the universe through the Force so often? The effort would've killed any Jedi she knew, even Master Yoda or Master Windu. It was unheard of. This had to be something else… something else, or they were in a world of trouble.

* * *

"…she cannot explain it and I'm frightened that I can't, either," Kaia said, rubbing her temples with her fingers. She was seated on a storage crate next to Poe's X-wing while the pilot was laying underneath the machine, fiddling with things that were likely good enough but nothing was ever good enough to Poe's standards. Not on his ship. He coddled the thing like it was his own child. It comforted him knowing that if she were ever destroyed in battle, he would die with her.

"Did you tell Leia?" Poe called out from underneath the ship. There was nobody else in the hangar due to the late hour and for that, Kaia was thankful. She felt shameful for telling Poe about everything Rey had trusted her with, the connection between her and Ren, the conflict about the light and the dark side deep within the man- everything. But Poe was the closest thing Kaia had to any kind of friend here, and she trusted him.

She didn't know why, but Kaia trusted him more than anything in this new world she'd been thrown into. "No. I don't think I can."

"I agree," Poe said. As he fiddled with wires and machines and whatnot stationed on the undercarriage of his X-wing, he thought about the General. It would break her to hear the conflict. She had already said many times that Ben had not completely fallen but he did not think it would be healthy for her well-being if she knew that Ben Solo had been sharing secrets with one of the only people in the Resistance that Leia truly and fully loved, loved like a daughter.

He'd come out here to escape the allure of Kaia, the feeling that he could never have her because of who she had been, who she was, what she could do- naturally, she only made it harder for him.

"I have to find out what this is, Poe. She's in danger- she's powerful. And so is he. If he wins her over.."

Poe slid himself out from under the X-wing and sat up, wiping sweat off of his forehead with his forearm. _Stars, he's attractive_ Kaia thought to herself. "Rey wouldn't do that."

"Besides, if Rey stays close to him it'll be easier to kill him."

Oh. Kaia was shocked at the bluntness of Poe's statement.

"Kill the Skywalker?" She asked in surprise. Poe nodded and wiped oil off of his hands.

"If he walked through those doors right now I wouldn't hesitate to put a laser through his brain."

Kaia contemplated the truth behind Poe's words. And the brutality of his feelings towards Ren.

She wondered if they had a history together. Perhaps Ben Solo and Poe Dameron had crossed paths at one point. "Rey insists that there's still light in him," Kaia stated.

"There's nothing but hate left in that man. He deserves to die."


	13. Silence

_"Poe, help!"_

_Another X-wing crashes down in a blaze of furious flames. Screams. Cries for directions from Poe only to be shot down by those who menaced the galaxy. Faces smiling so brightly until their smiles droop down into frowns as their face melts and their eyes fall from their sockets as the fire turns their skin into an oozing mess-_

_Names. Names that would drown in the history of the war, forgotten within years. The names emblazoned on the letters he'd handwrite himself, apologizing about his negligence, about the loss of such an incredible warrior, yet just another tally to the Resistance and to the First Order-_

_A voice as sweet as honey. Gentle fingertips brushing along his voice, combing through his hair, throwing him over her shoulder while she carried him towards her ship to place Poe in the pilot's seat for the first time- his mother. Gone. All of them, gone and wiped away from existence altogether. No mysterious Force to bring them back. Just the inky darkness of death._

Poe tossed in his bed, sweat beading on his face from the constant thoughts that plagued him. The thoughts and images and words and memories that made it impossible for him to sleep. Impossible for him to live. Being near people helped ease the pain but it never fully went away- it never would. No matter what he did, those voices would live with him. The faces he'd condemned to death would remain in his eyes, whether closed or shut, no matter how hard he tried. He tried to erase them if only to sleep for one night but it was proving impossible.

Perhaps the Resistance was better off without him. Perhaps the entire galaxy was better off without him- sure, war created losses on both sides but this many? He was doing an injustice to the Resistance- surely a commander should not be responsible for allowing this many to fall. He was not good enough. Leia deserved better, the Black Squadron deserved better. The Galaxy deserved better. Of course, they were ill informed and would never let Poe Dameron slip from their grasp- he'd have to leave himself. But even then, the war would follow him. Wouldn't it just be easier for him to take his fate into his own hands, rid the galaxy of his life, leave a space for a more effective commander in his place?

Death seemed easier than the pain he felt right now.

He had to do something- Beebee cooed softly from the foot of Poe's bed as he watched his master throw the blanket from his slumbering body and march across the bedroom- Poe ignored the droid. It would only make this harder. Poe threw open his door to do something he was entirely unsure of but there was a figure in his doorway, blocking him- "Poe?"

"Kaia," Poe sighed, muscles relaxing.

She was the only one who made the memories fade as much as they possibly could. "Why are you awake?"

"I… felt something strong emerging from your room. Unrest. It was too overwhelming for me to sleep," Kaia informed him. That was partially a lie; sure, she had felt the strong unrest but she could have slept. She just did not want to. She didn't want Poe to feel like this. But could she truly tell him that?

"Yea, I…" Poe ruffled his hair that was already mussed from the tossing and turning as his voice trailed away. He wasn't sure what to say to Kaia; in a sense, he was almost embarrassed that she'd been able to sense that. Kaia's eyes softened.

"I can help you sleep."

"No- no, it's fine, really-"

"Please, Poe. It's the least I can do. It'll help- the Resistance needs you well rested," Kaia said. He glanced at the worry etched over her features- perhaps his escape from this world would have to came at a later time. Kaia was making everything so much harder. Poe nodded and turned around, heading towards his bed while Kaia followed. The room looked much like it had earlier in the day, a few pieces of dirty clothing tossed about with a few personal belongings scattered about the room. Beebee chirped excitedly from the foot of Poe's bed, spinning around in a circle while Kaia chuckled. "Hello to you too."

Poe sat down on his bed. "Kriff, how do you know I wasn't having nightmares about you?" The commander joked as he shifted into a sleeping position on the bed, putting on his typical sarcastic façade. Kaia did not smile. She could see right through the pilot's mask.

"As realistic as this seems I know the horror of war and what it does to people," she said softly as Poe pulled the blanket back over himself.

"So how does this work? You just wack me in the head?" Poe said, ignoring the seriousness and the reality of her comment. Kaia smiled incredibly softly and reached forward, placing her palm on his forehead. Before Poe could say anything else to her, he was drifting off into the soft velvety darkness of a dreamless, deep sleep that he so desperately needed.

* * *

"This is a solo mission."

Leia, Poe, Admiral Ackbar, and Vice Admiral Holo were crowded around the small table in the General's headquarters. The only four people who knew of the top-secret mission that the Resistance had embarked on: locating Lor San Tekka, the only living being who knew the final piece to the puzzle of finding Jedi Master Luke Skywalker. As much as Leia had loved the Resistance, there was undoubtedly First Order agents placed amongst their ranks and it was impossible to tell how high they'd managed to infiltrate. These three people were the closest to Leia, the ones she trusted more than anybody else. They were on the cusp of finding him but unfortunately, they'd received word that the First Order was hot on the same trail as they were. Kylo Ren wanted to find Luke Skywalker just as much as Leia had, if not more.

"Solo?" Ackbar asked. "If this is a trap, then-"

"Dameron is the best of the best. If anybody can pull it off, it's him," Leia assured. Holo nodded.

"Typically I'm not a big fan of solo missions but she's right. Ossus is highly First-Order regulated and we need stealth on this. He has to go alone," she insisted. "Dameron?"

Poe nodded. "No. Yea, I'll be fine. I got this." He had dropped the sarcasm for just a moment to be serious- this situation needed it. He knew how desperately they needed the aid of Luke Skywalker, how badly Leia wanted to be reunited with her brother again- he would do anything within his power to make that happen, even if it meant going into the heart of the enemy by himself. He'd done it before, and he'd do it again.

* * *

Kaia stood with arms crossed, barking instructions to Rey who furiously slashed her lightsaber about in an impressive array of flurries and strikes while four training remotes circled her, shooting light beams at her while Rey expertly deflected them and fought them off. When Kaia had returned from the mission to Ovanis she was incredibly impressed with the progress Rey had made. The training remotes that should've given someone with her amount of training a world of trouble were merely a warmup to Rey who fought off the flashes of light with ease. It saddened Kaia to see the hilt of the saber Rey gripped with such familiarity and intensity had once belonged to Anakin. She'd been on many missions alongside that saber, but she's not sure there was anybody more deserving of it than Rey.

Stars, Kaia missed her saber. Requiring the elegance and prowess of a Jedi, it was most definitely the most effective close range weapon if one was able to master the art. Kaia herself had mastered several different styles of lightsaber combat. Though Obi-wan was more focused on the mentality behind the fighting and the use of the Force, being so close with Anakin and Ahsoka had kept her up to par with the pair. They had never stopped parrying and practicing with each other, the two young girls. Ahsoka had loved her sabers. Kaia had loved her saber, too. She wondered what ever had happened to it after the fall of the Jedi. If Windu did not destroy it. Nevertheless, the eager for Poe to hear word of some kyber crystal was growing by the day, an itch that nothing less than a lightsaber, or at least the path to one, could itch.

She could protect herself and Poe better with a saber.

No. She could protect the entire Resistance, everybody that mattered- why focus on only one pilot? He was nothing to her. At least, he should be nothing to her. She was afraid that that likely wasn't so true.

"Geez, what are those pipsqueaks going to help?" Kaia turned in time to see Poe beckon towards the small drones circling around Rey.

"They help with the Force compo-"

"Ah, I'm just messing," Poe said, waving it off before planting his hands on his hips. Rey, sensing Poe's presence, lifted the visor from her eyes and waved a hand at the droids, prompting them to land gently on the soil of D'Qar. Both her and Kaia stared at Poe with furrowed brows until Kaia glanced to Rey. "Why don't you head through the training course?"

Pursing her lips and nodding eagerly, the girl immediately turned tail and began to sprint towards the jungle where a training course of sorts had been constructed for Rey, something for her to practice both physical stamina and concentration on using the Force to sense her surroundings. "So what brings you out here?" Kaia inquired.

"Leaving for a few days, figured I'd let you know in case you got scared."

Kaia stared at Poe. Neither one of them wanted to mention the previous night. Kaia figured it would be cruel to, and entirely against her nature to use something that delicate and personal against him for humor. So Kaia just rolled her eyes.

"Real scared that the pests might come to bother me now that they're not distracted by your stink."

Poe chuckled. "They prefer Sarlaac over bantha, but smelling like a bantha ain't great either," Poe joked. His face turned a little more serious as did Kaia's. Was he here to say goodbye?

"Where are you off to?"

"Ossus. Solo mission. I… it might take me a while. It might not, I'm not sure. Place is crawling with First Order forces."

"Oh." And the two of them fell into a silence.

"I just came to let you know. Say goodbye."

"Isn't that rather thoughtful of you? Maybe you're not as selfish as I thought."

Poe ignored the playful jab and continued to talk. "If things go south… take care of this place for me, will ya?"

Kaia nodded and the pilot took one last long stare at her face before turning back towards the Resistance compound. "Poe?" Kaia called out. Poe turned to glance over his shoulder, brown eyes and curly hair and all…. There was so much she wished she could say.

"May the Force be with you."

* * *

With the distraction of Poe gone from the base, off to gain whatever intelligence he felt the need to hide from everybody around him, Kaia and Rey were able to focus solely on training. Not only was Rey growing exponentially stronger by the day but Kaia's full skillset was flooding back to her, the damage done by the carbon freezing and the side effects slowly ebbing away. She felt powerful again. Complete. It often occurred to her that it was Rey who reminded her so much of Ahsoka with her ties and loyalty to the light side. She wasn't in the lawless and invisible role of a bounty hunter under a woman so volatile, so dangerous, so influential. The Force flowed through her freely once more and she began to embrace it more and more by the day, teaching Rey how to control the raw strength, channel it and manipulate it to her will. The two grew great together and with the Force, Kaia knew that there was a powerful future ahead of them.

Still, Kaia felt incomplete.

Rey had allowed her to train with the lightsaber nearly every day. It was hard for Kaia to place her hand where Anakin's had once been, the greatest Jedi she'd ever known, one of the most important people in the life she had once lived. It was hard for her to do that when she knew the path he fell down. Still, every time she placed that hilt in her hand she felt his spirit in a sense, his strength, his passion and she channeled that into her training. By the time she found a lightsaber of her own she was quite aware that she'd be just as skilled now as she had been when she'd been a Jedi Knight.

The nights were lonely, but Kaia preferred it that way, watching the sun fall and the moon rise alone. The sun continued to rise and the moon continued to fall every morning, the mess hall continued to buzz with conversation and shouts and laughter and the atmosphere of the Resistance base remained so bright and optimistic even with Poe gone. The hangar was still abuzz with mechanics and droids and missions departing and returning, important decisions were still made daily by the High Command. The gears of the Resistance continued to turn all the same even without Poe Dameron present, but to Kaia, it was different.

It was likely because Poe was the first friend she'd made here. Nothing else. He couldn't be anything else than that. Kaia refused to even let the thought roam across her mind but sometimes she couldn't help it. The thought of his eyes and laughter and sarcastic remarks and dark curls would flash across her eyes.

She wasn't a Jedi. What if she gave in?

But then she'd remember the face of the man that had sat across from Rey that night and it would remind her of why Poe could never be more than a friend. Genocide. War. Pain. That's all that that would cause; it was all that it had ever caused.

No. Poe was just a friend.

For some reason that was something her mind had decided to fixate on during this particular meditation session she was having in her room. As much as she attempted to think of anything else other than the starfighter pilot her mind could not be drawn from him.

She had not even noticed the sound of her door sliding open nor the presence entering her room, but she did notice when the person who'd entered her room spoke. "I remember that feeling."

Leia took a seat on the edge of Kaia's bed, crossing her hands in her lap. "Stupid pilots, trust me… they have a way of wiggling themselves into your head and never leaving. For the better, sometimes," Leia said with a nod. Kaia was drawn out of her meditation and looked at the General whose eyes were lost in a wave of memories.

"Han Solo… he was a pilot, no?"

"The best of them," Leia sighed. "Arrogant and reckless, and… charming and more sensitive than the underside of a nerf. Remind you of anybody?"

Kaia's gaze looked away from Leia and instead decided to focus on the floor. What could she say? She didn't think anybody had any inkling of the attraction she had for Poe- how could they? Not even Rey seemed to sense anything, or Finn who seemed to be able to read Poe like the back of his hand. Leia nodded. "I thought so. You know, I think that’s why I like the kid so much. Spitting image of Han when he was younger. And I made a promise to his mother, anyways. To watch over him."

Kaia nodded and took in the information that Leia had just given her. "You knew his mother?"

Leia chuckled. "Oh, I knew Shara all right. And I see her shining through in Poe every single day. He's a lot like her, even too much so. And I know somebody that reminds him of her. He was young when she passed away but he still remembers pieces of her." Now, Leia looked pointedly at Kaia. _Oh_. Kaia reminded Poe of his own mother? She pondered what qualities she possessed that made that possible. Leia stood from the bed now with a sigh. "Anyways, kid, just wanted to come and check on you, make sure you're doing all right. If you ever need anything, anything at all, I'll be here."

Kaia watched as Leia left the room and couldn't help but be left with a feeling of wonder. The General certainly was mysterious and seemed to know much more than she let on. She wondered what exactly the General knew, and how much she knew of the tension between her and Poe.


	14. Shadows

"Han Solo?" Finn asked, raising an eyebrow as he spooned some more of the meaty soup from the mess hall into his mouth. Kaia nodded.

"Well… he's a bit grumpy."

"More than a bit," Finn finished for Rey. Rey shot him an annoyed glance before returning her focus to the conversation.

"He's not a big one for talking. Not if he doesn't know you," Rey continued on.

"I'll say."

"Finn!" Rey exclaimed, shooting him a dirty glare. Kaia knew how fondly Rey looked upon the smuggler Han Solo, and after what Leia had told her she wished to know more about the famous Rebellion leader. From the description Finn and Rey were giving, Kaia did not see any of Poe reflect in him. There had to be more to him than the vibe they were giving off. Rey turned back to Kaia, mouth open to continue to speak but her eyes ventured from Kaia's face to something behind Kaia and Kaia watched as her entire face lit up. "Poe!"

The starfighter pilot was strutting through the mess hall towards them, waving hi and greeting those who eagerly welcomed him back to the base. But his path was set on one group of three individuals at the back of the mess hall. Kaia's shoulders sagged in a silent relief at the sight of his curls and cocky grin. She hadn't doubted his abilities and she trusted that Leia and the High Command would never send him alone without the utmost confidence that he could do it, but she had still lay awake at nights reaching out with the Force to try and find him. Wherever he had gone, it had been far. He was fast, then. Far faster alone than with others. Poe slid into the seat between Finn and Kaia. "You guys have just been blessed with the best the Resistance has to offer."

Both Kaia and Rey could sense the glowing waves of satisfaction and joy coming off of Poe. She hadn't felt this from the pilot, yet. Typically the monsters deep within him were more powerful than anything he felt on the outside. "I take it you were successful?" Kaia smoothly asked.

"Would you expect anything else from the best pilot in the universe?" Poe gloated. He had not even grabbed food; the nerves inside of him were still abuzz from the success of the mission. He had not found San Tekka but he had found his most current location. They were one mission away from finding the final clue to the location of Luke Skywalker. Still, it would take at least a day for their intelligence to pinpoint the exact place on the planet that Lor San Tekka had inhabited; Poe had only found the name of a planet. Jakku. The enigma was on Jakku somewhere.

"Oh that's a bit presumptuous of you to say that when you're sitting by me," Rey chuckled, challenging Poe to the title. Poe shrugged comically.

"What can I say, baby. They don't get better than me and I don't need superpowers to do it." Kaia rolled her eyes when Poe described the Force as a superpower; her instincts wanted to delve into a lecture and tell Poe why that was so utterly wrong and what the Force truly was but she glanced at him and saw his brown eyes watching her. He'd wanted to irritate her. It seemed to be a hobby of his. She set her mind to not giving him what he wanted and crossed her arms, shaking her head with a sigh but remaining wordless.

* * *

Kaia had decided that her and Rey likely needed a break from the nonstop five days of training they had just undergone. Even with the Jedi, they had needed occasional breaks. Channeling the Force was an exhausting activity and doing it day after day depleted you of energy. They needed their strength as much as possible, so Rey suggested that her and Kaia head to Rey's quarters to relax. Poe immediately took over the situation and offered his own quarters as a place to relax, as it was larger and could accommodate all four of them. Deep down inside, Kaia was not opposed to returning back to Dameron's quarters but when she had a day of relaxation and restoration on the calendar for her and Rey, she wasn't entirely sure that spending the time with Poe and Finn was going to help.

They ended up in Poe's quarters anyways.

Finn, Poe, and Rey were playing some sort of three-way game involving cards that Kaia had not seen before and some dice that Poe had procured from somewhere Kaia had not seen. Naturally, not too far into the evening, bottles of beer had appeared on the table before Kaia even had a chance to object. Her connection with the Force rendered it impossible for alcohol to have any effect on her other than make her feel full and rather ill, so she'd always avoided it whenever she could. Rey, now stronger with the Force than ever, was unfortunately discovering the same predicament. While it was certainly an unexpected side effect, Rey didn't quite mind as she'd never been a big fan of drinking in the first place.

Kaia had attempted to rest on her chair with her eyes close and meditate but Poe would not allow it. He would continuously call out her name and joke and at times, even place his hand on her shoulder unconsciously while talking. Shivers would run down her spine and the movement would remind Poe of who he was, who she was, and why things would never be able to work no matter how hard they would ever try to.

Her eyes would traverse his form when he didn't notice. The way his lips moved as he laughed, the waves of his dark hair falling perfectly on his head, the warm brown eyes that felt like they were hugging you but held so much pain at the same time…

When the moon had risen too high and fatigue began to set in, they decided it was time to part ways and get rest. They had no idea what the next period of time was going to bring. Poe wished he could tell them that they were on the cusp of a breakthrough, of finding Jedi Master Luke Skywalker, but he couldn't. Not yet. Even if he trusted them more than anybody in this world… they couldn't risk anything going wrong. So he bit his tongue and kept the information he had a secret. Finn was leaning against Rey, confessing his love for some mechanic Kaia did not yet have the chance to meet while Rey guided him out of Poe's quarters and back towards his own. This left just Kaia and Poe sitting alone at the table and there were a few moments of silence while neither of them knew what to do.

Both of their eyes lifted and met each other and something leapt in the both of their stomachs, butterflies and waves cascading through their abdomens.

Poe wished nothing more than to lean across the table and take her cheek in his palm softly, feel the softness of her lips against his... the temptation was so strong and he'd done this so many times before but with Kaia, it was different. Everything with her was just so much different. In the past he'd found women so easy to talk to, so easy to lure into the grasps of attraction.

Kaia shot up from her chair. "Well, I think it's best I get some rest."

Before Poe could say anything or make any movements she departed the room, closing her eyes and wishing she could've had more conversation with the pilot but understanding exactly what that would lead to. So she went to her room and spent the night drifting off into a light and delicate sleep, images of the pilot she could never have flashing across the back of her eyelids.

* * *

"Hold still that fiery spirit of hope."

The voice reverberated throughout her head and made it vibrate in pain- she clutched both sides of her heads in a scream but the voice did not fade, the echoes and pain lingering no matter how hard she clawed at her ears. She begged for the presence to reveal itself, to tell her who it was, to show mercy but maniacal laughter surrounded her, drilled into her body, forced her to the floor and sent her to the depths of Hell and back.

"You. A mere mortal being who stood in the presence of Gods. Tell me, little one: what is so special about you?"

More pain. Only this time, it was not daggers piercing her skin, it was not her blood turning to razors and cutting open the inside of her body, it wasn't flames licking at her brain- it was shame. Embarrassment. She wasn't enough and she'd never, ever be enough. She was a nobody, she never mattered and she should've never mattered, her name should've been swallowed and forgotten in the endless oblivion of those who came before her-

A flash of white light, and the pain disappears.

Kaia shoots up in her bed, panting and nearly screaming while sweat streams down her forehead- it had just been a dream but the pain had been very real and as she sat in her bed, supported by her arms in panic she could feel the aftereffects of whatever had happened to her in the dream- somebody had been in her mind, speaking to her, hurting her.

Who had been in her head?

Darkness wasn't a word to describe it. She's not sure any explanation at all could come close to what she had just experienced-

Someone was beside her.

She snapped her head to the side, lifting a hand out in front of her in self defense but when she saw the person standing in her room before her, she nearly fainted.

"Obi-wan?" She murmured in disbelief, calling out the name of her Master as she looked upon his face for the first time in years. He looked the same as he had the day she'd last seen him, wavy hair falling softly on his shoulders, robes pristine and free of any tears or stains of blood, hands clasped in front of him while he looked upon his student with a smile. However, one thing was different: he looked like a ghost. His entire form was a soft, wispy white color with traces of blue, the room behind him faintly visible through him. "Am I still dreaming?"

"No." To hear his voice again brought tears to her eyes. It was startling to hear that voice again and for a moment she wished to call out and beg for forgiveness, apologize for leaving them to die, for abandoning the Jedi no matter how much her soul had needed to do it- "Do not fret, Kaia."

"You… you died. Leia watched it happen," Kaia whispered. Obi-wan chuckled and nodded.

"And she is right. My physical body was decimated but through the Force, my spirit lives on."

"How?" Kaia had never heard of anything like this occurring before.

"Master Yoda discovered something in ancient Jedi texts- the ability to travel back to this physical world through the threads of the Force. That is how I stand here and communicate with you."

Kaia's mind reeled at the implications of this- she lifted her head back to Obi-wan- "You can stay, then? Aid the Resistance? Help me in training Rey?"

"I'm afraid not. I came to communicate something to you with urgency- something you must tend to as soon as possible," he said. His tone grew more serious and Kaia listened to him intently- she wanted to beg him to stay, to ask him the secrets he held, to help her but she couldn't- she knew that. She needed to listen. "There are questions that you need answers to, and Yavin-4 holds forgotten secrets. There, you will find what you need. There's more to the planet than meets the eye. And Kaia? Do not forget. The galaxy holds secrets you need to be prepared for."

Kaia slowly nodded as she committed every word he'd told her to memory. "Master, when can I expect to see you again?" There were so many things she wanted to say, so many apologies and answers she wanted to give... 

Obi-wan smiled softly. "I'll always be with you." And with that, he disappeared as soon as he'd been there, leaving Kaia alone in the dark quarters. She wasn't sure what she had just experienced. Was she dreaming, or had that been reality? She supposed it was not out of the question for abilities like that to exist through the Force- she just supposed she'd never be one to actually see it in action. Obi-wan… oh, the tears from her eyes continued to fall as memories from her time as Jedi came flooding back to her. She'd loved him and seeing his face had only torn open a hole in her heart that she thought she'd been able to fix. 

Yavin-4. That planet was familiar… something clicked in her brain when she recalled Poe telling her that that planet was where he was born and raised with the rest of the Rebellion members after the fall of the Empire. That night they'd spent together cramped in the X-wing with Kaia settled uncomfortably on Poe's lap he'd regaled tales of his childhood from there, telling Kaia about the planet and everything on it.

How Kylo Ren had destroyed the Praxeum that Luke had built there and murdered all of its pupils.

So the Praxeum still held secrets that Kaia desperately needed, more clues to put into place of a puzzle that she wasn't even sure existed yet. Secrets about the Jedi, or secrets about Kylo Ren, or… Kaia did not know what to seek there. But she had heard the urgency in Obi-wan's voice and regardless, she would have trusted and obeyed anything he'd said. She always had. The destroyed Jedi Praxeum, as destroyed and pillaged as it was, served as the beacon that Kaia had to follow. And she had to do it soon.

* * *

Kaia stared at the gears churning behind General Organa's eyes as the general leaned over her work station, eyes focused on nothing as her mind was lost in a wave of thought. She could see conflict and pain in Leia's thoughts, pain from the memories of losing her son, her brother, the Praxeum that had served as a beacon of hope for the entire galaxy. Kaia had risen at first light to request a ship to travel to Yavin-4. She'd told the High Command that Obi-wan had come to her and while they were immediately indignant, they quieted once Leia informed them of the reality of Force Ghosts and their existence. Kaia would have to ask Leia about that later; now, she needed to get approval to venture to Yavin-4. Several members of the High Command who'd responded to summons stood about the chamber, listening intently to Kaia's request. Poe had seen the summons and, as he usually did with early morning tasks, rolled back over to sleep until he realized that Kaia's name had been on the message. So he stood with the rest of the High Command, discussing Kaia's request. "Yavin-4 has been heavily monitored by the First Order after… the fall of the Praxeum," Taslin Brance said hesitantly. It was not a topic brought up lightly in front of General Organa. Everybody knew how much she'd lost on that fateful day.

"Not to mention the fact that there's nothing left of it- the First Order pillaged the ruins and I'm sure scavengers have been able to pick off what remained after that," Vice Admiral Holdo added with a grim look on her face. Now, all attention turned to Leia as she straightened and addressed the rest of the High Command members.

"No. Obi-wan would not have come to Kaia if there was nothing worthwhile to find," she announced. Still, she was at a loss as to what to do- Brance was right. It would be impossible to get any craft onto that planet without being detected by the First Order, especially anything Resistance. But If Obi-wan had come… perhaps it was worth that risk.

"I can get her in and out of there- I'm fast," Poe said. He glanced at Kaia out of the corner of his eye and she nodded appreciatively at him.

"Speed does not matter when it comes to their technology- you will be shot down without a second thought," Ackbar reasoned."Speed alone doesn't matter- but that's where Rey and I come into play. We can cloak the ship from any tracking devices long enough to get us in and then back out again," Kaia explained with a rising sense of urgency. Murmurs ran throughout the High Command member and Poe cocked his head slightly at her. Kaia rolled her eyes and made a mental note to explain that one to him later- sure, it wasn't a common tactic and she'd never employed it before but now was not the time to explain in front of the entire High Command that that was because it was difficult and required intense power and concentration. As she feared, the question did come up.

"Cloaking ships from tracking devices and any monitors? This is unheard of and if it is a skill you possess how has it not come to light before?" An older member asked, a man named Caluan Ematt.

"The carbon-freezing my body underwent was difficult on my systems and hindered my connection with the Force. After training with Rey my full skillset has returned and only now can I do this," she announced. She didn't tell them she'd never done it before or else they'd never let this slide.

More murmurs ran throughout the High Command as they discussed on what decision to make, weighing the pros and cons, determining whether or not they thought they would be able to pull this off or not. Kaia nervously watched all of them- if they declined her request she'd have to sneak out anyways. She had to do this if it was what Obi-wan had willed her to do.

After a few more moments of discussion, Kaia heard the words that she had been dying to hear escape from the General's mouth.

"Permission granted, Kaia. You and Rey shall take the Nightfall. The High Command requests that Commander Dameron and one chosen starfighter from the Black Squadron accompany the ship in case anything goes south. They will not enter the atmosphere."

Kaia sighed in relief. Her eyes met Poe's, and the both of them felt a rising thrill as they were both on their way to answers that the Resistance sorely needed.


	15. Ruin

"Of course I'm coming with you," Finn said as if the notion of him staying behind was entirely ridiculous. Kaia did not care either way; it was Rey he had to contend with.

"No, Finn- it's too dangerous," Rey insisted as the three of them headed towards the Nightfall. The hangar was bustling at the current moment with all sorts of Resistance activity and so Kaia could not seem to spot Poe, wherever he was. She assumed he was going to select Snap or Pava for the mission- she felt more comfortable having two X-wings accompany them but it irritated her that Poe would be stuck in one while she was on Yavin-4- too far away for Kaia to protect him from harm.

"Well, if you're in danger then I'm in danger, too," Finn insisted. As Kaia listened to the pair behind her bicker she spotted a mechanic doing a few last minute repairs to the Nightfall- a short girl with short, smooth black hair pulled back into a ponytail, face tensed in concentration as she worked on one of the access panels near the open ramp. The girl turned to face Kaia and Kaia noticed the kindness in her face, the innocence- this woman belonged in the Resistance, all right. As Kaia approached the mechanic set her tools down and rushed towards Kaia with an extended hand. "Rose Tico. Just wanted to make sure she was in tip-top condition for you guys," Rose said as she shook Kaia's hand with a friendly intensity. Finn and Rey caught up to them and Finn placed a hand on Rose's shoulder.

"Rose," he said, speaking as thought the breath had been taken from him. Kaia's eyes glanced between Rose and Finn as a realization settled upon her and when she looked to Rey, Rey nodded with a sly smile on her face in confirmation. So this was the mechanic that had been on Finn's mind constantly. Kaia could understand why he liked her; she seemed intense, but incredibly sweet, and from what it seemed, a gifted and intelligent mechanic. "Thanks for fixing her up."

"Well, when you told me they asked you to go on the mission I only wanted her to be in her best condition…" her voice trailed off when she saw the glare Rey was giving Finn that could have curdled milk. So it was settled, then. Finn had to go with them. Kaia let out a genuine laugh.

"Thank you, Rose. It'll be duly noted and appreciated, truly," Kaia insisted before departing the group and walking up the ramp into the Nightfall. She had appreciated that the mechanic had ensured the Nightfall's integrity before they left. Yavin-4 was less than a day's flight from D'Qar through hyperspace but based on what the High Command had said about the planet, the chances of them getting into a dogfight with the First Order were decently high. Kaia made her way through the ship until she reached the cockpit and she sat into the co-pilot's seat, prepared for Rey to pilot the ship. Kaia was a decent pilot but as a Jedi, she hadn't been the best out of those she'd traveled with and of course, she was nowhere near the skill of Poe and Rey. She did not mind. There were things more important to excel at than piloting.

Out of the window of the cockpit which was facing the rest of the hangar, Kaia spotted a figure speaking to a mechanic at the base of an X-wing- Poe Dameron in his orange flight suit, prepared for a fight. She watched him speak to the mechanic animatedly when she was broke from her concentration by Rey… promptly followed by Finn. As always, the two were bickering. "…told you it was too dangerous, but I'm thinking I should've told Rose," Rey complained as she plopped herself into the pilot's seat. Finn rolled his eyes.

"Come on. You know that if it were the other way around, you'd be doing the same."

Rey crossed her arms and shook her head while Kaia could only smile softly at the argument going on. It sounded like exactly something that would've happened between her and the other Jedi, back when they'd ventured everywhere together and wouldn't let the others get into harms way if they could have anything to do with it.

In time the two X-wing pilots had crawled up into the cockpits of their ship and Kaia and Rey prepared the Nightfall for takeoff. Kaia's stomach was churning; she wasn't entirely sure what to expect on this planet, what was there that was worth cloaking a ship over since they needed to get to the planet so badly. Kaia was sure that Obi-wan would not send her astray but as the ship leapt into hyper speed, she grew more and more nervous.

Jedi had died here.

From what she'd been told they'd been murdered in cold blood by Kylo Ren. At least, that's all that the Resistance could make of it. They did not have much time to investigate and search for Luke before the First Order had shown up to claim whatever lay in the rubble of what had once been Luke's Praxeum. So there had to have been something the First Order missed, something that Kylo Ren missed.

It was up to her to decipher whatever that was.

In the meantime, she was in the cabin of the Nightfall with Finn and Rey, playing sabaac and arguing over trivial things to distract themselves of the road ahead.

* * *

"Black One, do you copy?" A voice called out from the earpiece inside of Poe's flight helmet. Startled, he jumped awake from the light doze he'd fallen into while they'd been in hyperspace.

"Leia?" Poe spoke into the mouthpiece, brows furrowed in confusion. Leia was never the one to communicate with him while he was flying unless lives were in danger… or if Poe was breaking an order. Neither of that seemed to be happening right now.

"Poe. They've located the target's coordinates. He's in the village of Tuanul. I need you to reroute your flight path to Jakku immediately."

Poe bit his bottom lip. "Leia, they need me here, can it wait another day until this mission is over with?"

"No. The First Order is right on our tail with this one. We have to strike fast. It's now or never," Leia informed him in a grave tone. Poe vacillated back and forth for a few moments- on one hand, he trusted Tallissan to be a worthy protection for the Nightfall in her X-wing, but on the other… if anything were to happen, it was going to be completely on him. They were counting on him.

But Luke Skywalker…

This was too vital to the Resistance to ignore. With a sigh, Poe began to reprogram the hyperdrive into turning approximately 97 degrees and heading across the galaxy towards Jakku. He was grateful that Beebee had had the foresight to pack extra supplies in the storage unit of his X-wing just in case as Jakku was a several day's flight from his current location. "Flight rerouted," he informed Leia through the comms.

"May the Force be with you, Dameron." With that, Leia's signal from the comms was cut just in time for another voice to cut through.

"-to Black One, my scanners are saying that your ship has diverged from its hyperlane? Technical error, Poe?" Tallissan asked.

"I'm being rerouted for a different mission, Tal. Take care of them," he said through the comms.

"Different mission- where?" There was a rising annoyance creeping up in Tallie's tone but she was also concerned for Poe.

"It's classified. I'll see you- not for a while. Please, take care of them," Poe urged. There was a few moments of staticky radio silence before Tallissan answered.

"Will do, commander. Stay safe out there. May the Force be with you."

"May the Force be with you," Poe echoed in a murmur. Once he knew Tallissan's connection was gone he attempted to contact the Nightfall but they must've been preoccupied with something else as nobody answered- wait! He knew what he could do.

* * *

Finn and Rey had been in the middle of a rather intense sabaac game when a hologram erupted from the center of the board, scattering the pieces and immediately ending the game. They both groaned in annoyance, especially when they saw that it was Poe's face hovering above their board in blue light. "Are you kidding me, man?" Finn groaned in annoyance.

"Finn, listen." The serious tone of Poe's voice and the urgency he seemed to have cut off all laughter and complaints. All attention snapped towards him; it wasn't often that Poe Dameron was serious around his friends so when he was, they knew that it was… well, serious. "I've been rerouted."

Something clicked in Kaia's mind and she knew exactly what he had been assigned to do. "They located the target."

Poe's eyes flicked over to Kaia and he nodded gravely. "Yes."

"Well-where?" Rey asked.

Poe glanced at the three before him- the three people he trusted more than anybody, the three people who he owed the entire galaxy. He owed them this much. Besides- it was just the name of a planet. "He's on Jakku."

Rey's body went slightly rigid at the mention of the planet she'd been abandoned on, the planet she'd grown up on, the planet that had shaped her into a person, beat her, spun her around, and eventually spit her out into the life she was currently living, the life she'd always dreamed of. "Tuanul…" she whispered under her breath. She remembered the name and she vaguely remembered the looks of the village but she racked her brain pondering who exactly the Resistance needed so badly that could be residing there.

"It's a few days away. I'll… I'll see you guys again when I have good news, hopefully," Poe said. Kaia remained quiet and stared at the hologram of Poe. All she knew of Jakku was that it was a desert in the middle of space full of junkers and traders; it wasn't really even a place that any spicerunners or criminals bothered with. For that reason, it was a wonderful planet to lay low on and it made sense that a high-profile target would be hidden there. "Don't get yourself killed or anything, I don't want to have paperwork to do," Poe said with a small smile on his face. His concentration was aimed at Kaia and for the first time in a while, she found herself not able to find anything to say. Finn picked up instead.

"Oh, don't worry, we're gonna make sure you have to do that either way. Stay safe, man," Finn said, watching the hologram of the pilot. Kaia finally found words to say.

"Poe? May the Force be with you."

This was such a common saying from the old Rebellion and within the Resistance that the words had come to have no more meaning to Poe than hello, good bye, or good luck, but for some reason when Kaia spoke those words he felt… different. Different than normal. Hopeful, maybe? Loved. That seemed to be the right word. It spread warmth within him.

"You too, Kaia. Alright, guys, I'm gonna have to go dark soon to prevent any tracking. See ya on the other side."

And with that, the hologram flickered away and the trio was left in silence for a few moments. Rey and Finn were looking at each other and then looked over to Kaia, who seemed more downtrodden than the other two. Naturally, there was only one to break the silence:

"Oh, have I interrupted something?" C-3PO announced as he shuffled into the cabin of the ship. All three heads turned towards him.

"No, Threepio. You're good," Finn assured the droid. Leia had insisted that Threepio join them on the mission for he'd been at the Praxeum more than other droids and he was their most trusted protocol droid and translator in case they would ever need one while on Yavin-4. Kaia had nearly cried when she saw the golden droid waddle off of a New Republic ship that had come with a shipment for the Resistance, even if Threepio did not remember who she was due to memory wipes. He was just as much a relic of the Jedi Order as she was, the only physical remnant she had of those days and for that, she was happy. She was incredibly surprised to see that the droid had lasted so long, and when he'd shown her the deactivated body of Artoo it had saddened her. She meant to fix it but Finn insisted that if Rose could not, then nobody could. Finn turned back and trained his eyes directly on Kaia. "He just missed the goo goo eyes those two were giving at each other-"

"Finn!" Rey hissed, slapping him on his arm. Finn rolled his eyes.

"Come on, it's true!"

"There is nothing of that nature to be found," Kaia smoothly said, although deep down, embarrassment was rising. She could not show that. They could not know for anything she felt for the pilot wasn't real and did not matter to her.

"Oh, come on Kaia, we're not dumb and we're not blind. He doesn't stop talking about you-"

"What?" Kaia asked, her interest piqued.

"Yea! Dude's into you, and I think you might be the first girl who's actually brushed off Poe Dameron," Finn exclaimed. Rey scowled at him.

"No, no, Finn! She's not- it's not-" Rey struggled to find the words. Kaia grew flustered and shook her head.

"Of course- I mean, there's nothing there, but if there was- I can't do that," Kaia hissed across the table to Finn who dissolved into laughter at seeing his friend so flustered. On the other hand, Rey was looking at Kaia with interest and Kaia could see the gears turning behind her eyes and curiosity brewing.

"You know, I've been wondering- no attachments was a Jedi teaching, but you left," she commented. Kaia looked down at her lap.

"It's too dangerous. Attachments can be taken advantage of, attachments lead to blinding anger and rage and a spiral into the dark side," Kaia murmured. It was the simplest way she could put it for now. Rey nodded and leaned back, and Kaia knew that Rey did not understand and never would. She yearned to hear Rey's side of the issue but the girl remained silent, chewing on Kaia's words.

* * *

They finally broke from lightspeed hours later.

The planet below them seemed vibrant and full of life at first sight, emerald green jungles and cerulean lakes covering the entire surface. If one had not known what had happened in this place it might've seemed like paradise but the moment it appeared Kaia could sense an impending feeling of doom. Turning from the window in the cockpit, she left Finn and Threepio to pilot the Nightfall to find Rey sitting on the couch in the main cabin, eyes closed and preparing for the feat they were about to accomplish. Rey's brows were furrowed and her eyes flew open when Kaia entered the cabin and began to speak. "Are you prepared?"

Rey nodded. "As prepared as I could ever be."

Without any more words, Kaia sat across from Rey on the soft cushions and immediately began to let the surroundings around her fade away. "Be strong, Rey. Feel the Force flow through you," Kaia murmured. Both of the women closed their eyes and began to deepen their breathing as they allowed the cabin of the Nightfall to fade away, the faint discussion between Finn and Threepio, the thrumb of the engines, the hissing and beeping noises emanating from within the bowels of the ship. Everything outside of them faded away until they felt nothing but the Force and they began to sink deeper and deeper within its clutches until the only thing they knew was the bright signatures of each other. They began to work and focus on concealing the ship, on protecting them, on keeping them safe.

"Do you think it's working, Threepio?" Finn murmured quietly. He did not see any First Order ships or probes but he knew that they were too close for comfort, monitoring anything and everything that came and left the planet. Even though the comms were off and it did not matter, he felt the need to whisper and remain quiet.

"I'm quite afraid that there will be no telling until it's too late, sir," Threepio replied in a grave tone. Finn coaxed the ship slowly through the atmosphere towards the planet, crawling slower than he would've liked. He trusted Rey and Kaia, even with so much at stake, but he couldn't help but feel a pit of anxiety in his stomach as they lowered towards the planet. Threepio had taken control of navigation of the ship as the exact location and coordinates of the ruins of the Praxeum were stored within his memory.

They had left Tallissan far enough away from the planet to monitor activity and ensure that they had not been spotted while able to maintain secrecy herself, but close enough where she could rush to the surface of the planet just in any stars-forsaken case they'd need them.

As the ship lowered closer and closer to the surface of the planet, the gray mass that had been below them became more apparent to Finn to be the ruins of the old Praxeum. The remains of the building lay scattered about, gray and brown rubble that apparently held secrets that Kaia needed to know. Finn's spirits lifted higher and higher the closer they traveled to the ruins as it seemed as though the plan was working, they had escaped detection!

It wasn't until they landed in a grassy area not too far from the ruins that Finn let out a cry of celebration, shouting and whooping with glee at the knowledge that Kaia and Rey had done a spectacular job protecting them. Threepio was quizically studying the landscape while Finn leapt from the pilot's seat, cheering and pumping his fist in the air to find the relieved faces and sagging shoulders of Rey and Keia in the cabin. They were both panting pretty heavily from the effort but it was over, they were safe, they'd made it.

They were on Yavin-4, the site of the second Jedi massacre, the Jedi Praxeum where Luke Skywalker had built and lost everything.


	16. Legends

The air was heavy.

It was not the wetness of humidity nor the threat of any sort of weather that plagued them but the overwhelming sense of destruction, fear, pain, grief.

The three approached the rubble where the Praxeum had once stood and nearly fled where they stood from everything tainting the Force here. Even Finn could feel the dread ahead of them, the darkness that had eaten the lightness that had once dwelt here. The hopes, the dreams, all crushed by the jaws of the dark side. By Kylo Ren.

Kaia fell to her knee, not out of her own will but out of pain and respect for what had happened here, those who'd lived here, those who'd died here. She closed her eyes, wincing, and placed the fingertips of her hand on the ground only for something electrifying to run through her body. The Force echoes of what had happened ran through her very spirit and she heard screams, felt an overwhelming feeling of terror and helplessness while visions of lightning and fire flashed across her eyes. She could see the great building of the Praxeum eaten by flames while bombarded with lightning, flashes of red, people running only to fall to their final resting place.

The booms of thunder and the sound of the conflagration rushed in her ears, remnants of what had happened to this place long ago and she winced, tears coming out of her eyes involuntarily as she experienced it all through the Force echoes laid in the soil of the planet.

A hand on her shoulder dragged her out of the memories and Kaia looked up to see Rey looming over her with worry etched on her face. Silently grateful that Rey had taken her away from the things she'd been seeing she straightened up and brushed the soil off of her hand. "What did you see?" Finn asked from behind the two.

"I saw what happened here. I felt the pain and the terror, I saw the fire," Kaia murmured, looking with a newfound respect over the rubble that remained. She could not continue further but there was no need to. Rey and Finn had heard the murmurs over the lunch tables, the whispers in quiet corners about the Jedi massacre. About the night Kylo Ren had killed all of them. But Rey knew the truth. They began to kick through the rubble, their hearts completely empty, a void ripped open inside of them- they had no strength to do this, to look for what Obi-wan had urged them to look for. They just felt… helpless. Where Leia had inspired such a spirit of hope, they found none. There was no hope to be found in this place.

Something had to be done about Kylo Ren, that much was certain to Kaia after seeing the carnage before her. He needed to find the lightside, be dragged out of the depths of the Sith but the more and more Kaia looked over the remains of the Praxeum… she wasn't so sure that that was going to be possible. Rey couldn't have been right. The monster capable of this surely had no redemption within his destiny. Only destruction. Kaia needed to rid the galaxy of him, and it was becoming more apparent that Poe was right. The only way the galaxy could be cleansed was with the death of Kylo Ren.

Rey did not want to look.  
  
She did not want to feel the pain or the terror anymore- _this hadn't been Ben._ He had told her so himself- a mighty storm had overwhelmed the Praxeum, he'd returned to help but it had been too late and naturally, the only thing to blame for the unnatural entity was Ben Solo. Still, the more and more she overlooked everything, soaked in the darkness that lingered here it was becoming hard for her to believe. She trusted Ben to a certain extent, she'd come to understand him in a way she didn't think anybody else ever had before, but here, now… there connection was futile. If Ben had not been responsible for this, who contained the power to do it? They would've known if it were Snoke. He hadn't been here that night. Ben had.

It all happened at once.

Finn watched in horror as Rey fell to the ground, hands slamming onto the sides of her head as she let out a godawful scream filled with pain. Simultaneously, Kaia had stumbled and eventually fallen into the rubble, hand clutching her chest as though if it were on fire. To her, it may as well have been. Rey's screams were deafened to her own ears as the blood pumped through them, adrenalin rising from the fire burning in her chest. Kaia clawed at the front of her shirt but there was no fire, there was nothing external. She did not notice the screams of Rey nor the shouts from Finn attempting to help- there was only _fire_ and there was only _pain._

She was burning with the Praxeum, falling and dying at the twisted hands of Ben Solo-

_No._

The light.

It was in front of her, a barely visible tendril of white, milky light the size of thread winding and twisting through the rubble.  
  
She had to follow it.

In the deep clutches of pain Kaia found the strength from within her to crawl through the rubble, feeling flames and fire that did not seem to exist licking at her heels, burning her skin and causing her an amount of pain she'd never felt before. But she had to follow the light. The Force was leading her out of this, leading her to something.

Meanwhile, Rey had an entirely different monster to contend with.

 _"Where are you?" The voice questioned through his mask, voice masked and monotoned from the voice scrambler his helmet contained. He had thrown aside the trust and the respect him and Rey held for each other when_ Luke Skywalker _was thrown into the equation. Rey did not answer. She only continued to force the menace out of her head, fighting against the darkness pushing painfully through the fringes of her consciousness, refusing to give up her location. Ren did not know where Rey was but he had sensed something was off- she was somewhere she shouldn't be. Somewhere Ren did not want her, or anybody. He'd thrown aside respect and forced himself into her mind, looked aside as she writhed on the ground and screamed in pain at the unexpected assault of her mind. Ren was not holding back._

Kaia crawled after the tendril, letting out soft cries and tears as she felt as though she was being burned alive. The Force was willing it. It wanted her to follow it.

Finn clawed at Rey and stroked her hair, trying to help her but nothing would, he was planted too deep into her head. She had allowed this. He glanced at Kaia who was crawling through the rubble, so conflicted- but when he saw Rey helpless on the ground, he knew he had to stay with her.

_"Tell me, are you looking for answers that I've already given you? You're only going to find lies," Ren murmured inside of Rey's head._

_"You- MONSTER!" Rey managed to croak out through the pain. Ren clenched his fist and Rey screamed as another shock of pain ran through her body._

_"You think you know what happened there, but you don't. You're on Yavin, aren't you?" He paused for a moment. "You're on Yavin. You think you know what you're after but you don't. I'm doing this for you. See you soon."_

The tendril of light had stopped- she'd reached the end and the fire began to fade but she didn't even notice it through the pure panic she felt- the light was gone.

But there was nothing there.

Only scorched rubble and bugs and death and decay-

 _Dig,_ a voice whispered in her head. Obi-wan.

Blindly, Kaia began to dig through the rubble, through chunks of building aside as she dug towards something- whatever it was, she did not know, but she knew the gravity of the situation.

Something poked out underneath a large chunk of rock. Her hands were raw from digging and she _hurt_ and in a panic she lifted her hand and sent the chunk flying across the rubble with the Force, revealing something out of place, so fresh- she did not understand how they were there but they were.

An old, scorched leather book, laying neatly on the rock.

Two broken halves of a lightsaber hilt, battered and scratched.

And a Kyber crystal.

She reached down with shaking hands and grabbed all three objects. The Force had brought these to her, that she was sure of. This is what Obi-wan had come urged her to retrieve. However, she had no time to inspect what she'd found or even think of why the Force had brought her to them for Finn was shouting Kaia's name in a panicked tone.

Kaia jumped to her feet, body sore and aching from the pain she'd undergone but there was a new life in her, a new spirit- she had a lightsaber. And hopefully, with the book she'd found, answers to at least one of the questions lingering in her brain.

She spotted Rey on the ground over the rubble, shaking and terrified while Finn helped her to her feet as he screamed for Kaia- _oh no._ What had happened?

She traversed the ruins quicker than Finn realized and was suddenly next to the two, looking at the shaking Rey with worry. "What happened?" She asked, placing one hand under Rey's arm when the girl looked as though she was about to fall. Tears were streaming down Rey's face and she looked troubled and pained as she shook her head- "I'm sorry," Rey continued to repeat. Kaia looked to Finn for answers and he grimaced.

"The First Order knows where we are. We have to move- what did you find?"

Finn, Kaia, and Rey all looked down to the objects Kaia was clutching so tightly that her knuckles began to turn white. Kaia looked back up and to Threepio waiting at the _Nightfall_ for them- "Now's not the time to explain- if they know we're here, we have no time. We need to move."

Clutching the objects with a deathly grip, they began to make for the _Nightfall,_ Finn helping Rey stumble across the overgrown grass while she was still reeling from whatever had happened- Kaia reached out to her with the Force, provided her with strength- she'd found something. Something that could help her. They couldn't lose it to Ren. "Threepio!" Kaia shouted forward to the golden droid. "Threepio, get the ship ready for takeoff as fast as you can!" Kaia shouted. The droid said something she couldn't hear before waddling back up the entrance ramp as fast as he could. Kaia was soon to follow, sprinting up the ramp and turning left to man the gunner position- they needed to move but Rey was the best pilot out of the three of them and the only chance they had at evading the First Order forces that were inevitably circling the planet and entering the atmosphere.

She heard Finn and Rey clambering up the ramp behind her but she continued forward, taking only a few moments to secure the items she'd found under the pillow of one of the bunks before rushing forward towards the ladder to the ship's guns. Clambering up the ladder she found herself in a small area with a large glass viewing window in front of her, the long metal snout of the gun protruding from somewhere just below her. She threw herself into the seat, fingers fumbling to secure the seatbelt on the chair before glancing around and working with numerous switches and buttons to fire up the guns- at the same time, the ship began to thrum and lift off the ground far sooner than Kaia anticipated- she knew she'd been right about Rey piloting. The girl had remarkable abilities that Kaia could never hope to even come a fraction close to.

The rubble and ruins of the planet began to grow further and further as they lifted off into the atmosphere and Kaia wistfully watched it fade away. She doubted she'd ever see it again. One day, if things were over and Ren had been dealt with, the First Order was gone, the Sith destroyed- she knew she owed the place a proper memorial.  
  
She'd seen worse during her time as a Jedi but this had hit her so hard for the massacre that occurred here reminded her too much of the one she should've fallen in beside her comrades. She'd never forgiven herself for allowing the Jedi to die in Order 66. And for some strange reason, she couldn't forgive herself nor Ren for what happened on Yavin-4.

While the ship lifted away Kaia placed the comms headset on her head and immediately heard the chatter of Rey and Finn- Rey seemed recovered, for the most part. She needed to be. "… _two TIE fighter scouts incoming,"_ Finn said through the comms. Kaia gripped the handles in front of her, working to slow her breathing and connect with the Force-

Before the TIEs had even appeared in her vision she had swiveled the chair around and began to blast, turning one of the TIEs into a ball of fire that crashed towards the surface of the planet. The other TIE swung around the back of the ship and focused its aim on the _Nightfall,_ performing a series of spins and maneuvers to evade the blaster fire from Kaia while returning red blasts of its own. Rey's piloting was sly and quick and reminded Kaia of Anakin. She was used to be thrown about in ships and so she continued to blast at the TIE fighter while Rey flitted about in the air and attempted to get them to a safe place to jump into lightspeed.

Just as Kaia finished off the second TIE fighter she heard the crackle of the comms and Rey's voice interrupt Finn's cheering. "… _Kaia? We have… too many TIEs incoming. I might have to try something risky here."_

"What are you going to try?" Kaia called through the comms.

_"Jumping into lightspeed from the atmosphere."_

"…Do we not have ANY other options here?" Kaia questioned _._

_"Not if we want to make it out of here alive."_

Kaia gritted her teeth. She knew the odds here- jumping into lightspeed within a planet's atmosphere would tear a ship apart. She hadn't heard of many instances where it hadn't- she closed her eyes.

They flew open with a realization.

They'd been in the exact situation when Kaia had first been assigned to Obi-wan- he'd prevented Anakin from tearing the ship apart with the Force. Kaia did not know how but it was possible. That was all that mattered. "Finn, get down here and man the guns," Kaia ordered through the comms.

" _I thought you'd never ask!"_ Finn's voice hollered through the comms, already growing faint as he sprinted away from the cockpit to relieve Kaia of her station. Outside of the ship, Kaia saw a blur pass by, too large to be a TIE fighter- Tallissan zipped around the outside of the ship, evading the TIEs and distracting them as best as possible, evading blaster fire and managing to take out a few TIEs here or there- as much as Kaia was not fond of her she had to admit that she was a pretty skilled pilot. Poe would not have chosen her if she was not.

_Kriff._

She'd have to help Tallissan not tear her X-wing apart, too.

Just as she came to this realization Finn shouted from the bottom of the ladder and Kaia nearly leapt out of the seat, throwing herself down the ladder as quickly as possible while the ship stayed steady until the two could secure themselves- Finn was communicating rapidly to Threepio from his own headset and he gave a firm nod to Kaia before climbing up the ladder to man the guns. Scanning the area, Kaia saw a small popout seat protruding from one of the walls of the ship and strapped herself in securely. "Rey, tell Tallissan she has to jump into lightspeed as the _exact_ same moment as us. It's the only way."

Rey, a bit preoccupied with making sure they did not get killed shouted at Threepio. " _Threepio, switch Kaia's comms over to Tallie's channel!"_

There were a few moments of static before Kaia was speaking with Tallissan. "Tallissan, we can make it out of here- did Rey tell you the plan?"

Tallie's voice was smooth and steady, full of bravery but underneath, Kaia could recognize the undertone of fear. " _She did. I'm afraid I won't be able to jump into lightspeed this close-"_

"No, we both can!" Kaia cut her off. "But you have to listen to me- we have to jump into lightspeed at the same time, Tallissan. I can protect you- you have to trust me."

Kaia was desparate to hear Tallie's response. The girl was passionate about the Resistance, and she was kind- she meant a lot to Poe and Kaia would not be able to forgive herself if Tallissan didn't make it out of this.

" _I'm sorry, Kaia. I was given a mission to protect the Nightfall and that is my duty."_ She paused for a moment and the sound of blasters rang loud and clear through the comms while Tallie grunted a few times. _"Tell Poe I'm sorry, and that I love him. And tell my sister- tell my sister to never give up."_

Sadness flooded Kaia's chest and she went to tell Tallie to tell Poe and her sister herself but Threepio had already switched the comms- everything was going past in a blur- and Rey shouted to Kaia that they were jumping into lightspeed. Numbly, Kaia closed her eyes.

She didn't remember connecting with the Force, she didn't remember holding the ship together. She was numb. There was a void in the Force when Tallissan had died only moments after they'd made the jump. Her head was reeling and every part of her body was aching with despair. She had never truly given Tallissan a chance and now the girl had just died to protect her. _Her._ A Jedi lost in time, who did not belong.

Kaia had gotten them into lightspeed safely, but at what cost?

* * *

When Kaia rose from her slumber, she felt drained. Using the Force so often would do that to any Jedi, but it wasn't just that. She felt guilt. The same guilt that had been a deciding factor in her leaving the Jedi. This was just one death but this one death _hurt._ She'd never given Tallissan a chance but Poe had, and Poe- he'd loved Tallissan. How was she going to tell Poe that it was Kaia's fault she'd died?

Her hands felt something underneath her pillow. The entire reason this mess had happened. Finn and Rey, who'd been murmuring quietly to each other across the table next to the bunks, turned and looked at Kaia who pulled four objects out from underneath her pillow. The book- oh, whatever was in here better have been worth the pain.

The lightsaber alone was.

It needed some work, that was clear. The hilt of the lightsaber had been cracked in half- she wondered if it was from the Praxeum. If it belonged to some Jedi who had fallen at the hands of Kylo Ren, if the Force had brought just any hunks of metal she could use to the surface for her to find. The crystal, on the other hand, was odd.

It was larger than any crystal she'd ever seen, and… it had the strangest hue to it. Her last saber had been a bright blue in color, the crystal she'd taken from Ilium and meditated on for months on ending adopting the cerulean hue. She'd seen greens, oranges, yellows, Windu's iconic purple, white… but she had not yet seen this shade before. It was colored like an ocean, but lighter-

"Holy kriff- that's what you found?" Finn said, sliding out of the booth and coming to look at the kyber crystal on the bed next to Kaia.

Kaia's attention turned to the hilt.

She knew that hilt. The metal, the designs, the simplicity of it- she'd seen this lightsaber hilt before. She'd felt it.

Hesitantly, she reached out and touched the cool metal. And the realization hit her like a bantha.

This was Obi-wan's lightsaber hilt.

Why it had been at the Praxeum she did not know but a sense of relief and warmth flooded through her at the realization. She'd be using her Master's lightsaber, adopting it as her own- and for that, she was grateful. It would be yet another familiarity in this new world.


	17. Guardian

Leia held the two halves of the lightsaber in her hands gingerly, studying the intricate design carefully, the frayed wires and mechanics on the inside, the shell where a kyber crystal had once been held. She was well aware that Obi-wan's lightsaber had been recovered by none other than Maz Kanata at some point in time and displayed at the Praxeum, but she'd assumed like everything else on Yavin-4, it had been pillaged. Somehow, it had returned, and it had placed itself right into the hands of Kaia Wyn. This lightsaber had saved her and Luke's life, once. It had been the same hilt that had rendered Anakin Skywalker nearly dead, the same lightsaber that had fought alongside her father for so long. He'd been one of the greatest Jedi ever known to history. And now, it was going into the hands of Kaia. Leia set the metal on the table. She could not think of anybody more fitting to carry on Obi-wan's legacy.

Across the table from Leia, Rey was silent, her hands folded in her lap. She stared at the table. She blamed herself for Tallissan's needless death, for the First Order almost capturing them. It was true. She'd allowed Ren into her mind, allowed him to find out where they were. Silently, Leia reached across the table and placed her hand on Rey's leg. Rey's eyes lifted to the general who offered a soft smile. In Leia's eyes Rey could see her telling her that it wasn't her fault.

Meanwhile, after a few moments passed Leia looked to Kaia who had been inspecting the kyber crystal with an intense stare. She turned the crystal in her fingertips and through the Force, tried to collect any Force echoes she could from it but all she gathered was an overwhelming sense of justice and lightness. It did not feel like any kyber crystal she'd held before, but there was too much history and emotion lying deep within for it to be nothing. This crystal was old. "Whose do you think it was?" Kaia asked across the table. Leia stared at the crystal for a few moments.  
  
"I'm not sure. I don't remember any of Luke's pupil having a lightsaber of that color," Leia murmured. As Kaia inspected the crystal Leia racked through her memories for any lightsaber she'd seen with the cyan hue of the crystal before but she had not. Strange indeed. "The book. Were you able to look at it?"

Kaia shook her head. "I'm not sure why it was brought to me. It's… I've seen this book before. It's full of children's stories. The Masters used to read them to the youngest of us at the Temple."

Rey furrowed her brows and finally decided to speak up through the inner turmoil she was feeling. "I… I don't understand. Why did Obi-wan wish for you to find a book full of children's stories?"

"Sometimes there's truth to be found in such things," Leia advised. "Many children's stories are stories forgotten in history, passed on for so long that one can't even see the truth in them any longer."

Kaia looked down at the weathered, burnt leather in front of her. _Stories._ That's all they'd been. Why had Obi-wan wanted her to find this?

"Tallissan died for this. A hero," Kaia murmured under her breath as she looked down at the book. Perhaps Leia was right- there may be some merit to studying what the book had to offer. She vaguely remembered the details of such stories, the ancient gods and goddesses and princes and princesses, tales of heroic actions, terrible monsters, darkness that the galaxy had never seen since conquered by the mightiest of heroes.

She could nearly hear Qui-gon's voice as he read stories to the younglings later than Master Yoda would have liked- their soft ooos and aas had echoed around the chambers of the younglings. As all of them had she'd yearned to be the heroes in the stories. The heroes who always came at the last minute to save the day flawlessy, strike down the enemy, ride off into the stars with their love by their side.

Things were never that simple, were they?

No… not that simple. She looked down at the book and felt something stirring within her- something familiar. She knew these stories, she remembered them all too well and Qui-gon's voice began to echo within her ears.

" _It was called the Heart of the Guardian, an ancient relic of the Jedi Order."_

Leia's and Rey's chatting voices faded from her ears as she flipped the book open and sorted through the pages, not even reading the words written on them for she knew exactly what she was looking for- she continued to flit through the pages and Rey and Leia paused their conversation to watch Kaia search through the book with piqued curiosity. The Heart of the Guardian. She remembered the story- how could she not? It was one of the earliest told to the Jedi younglings.

She continued to sort through the dusty, yellowed pages until she landed on what she'd needed-

"Kaia, what is it?" Leia's voice broke through Kaia's concentration as Kaia's eyes scourged the page she'd been looking for.

It was not the words nor the story that Kaia was interested in, she knew the tale by heart.

It was the drawing on the right side. The drawing of the very kyber crystal sitting before her on the table.

Both Leia and Rey fell silent when their eyes fell on the same drawing- the color was faded and the lines were not easy to make out but it was obvious.

The crystal on the page was the same one that had come to Kaia.

"The Heart of the Guardian. It was… it was an ancient relic of the Jedi, some thought that it was used to aid in forming the Order itself. But, it was lost. Lost long ago. According to the prophecies of the Order, the Heart would appear at the time of greatest turmoil and help in bringing the galaxy into salvation… fall into the hands of those righteous enough to wield it and strong enough to bring peace to the galaxy."

Palpable silence fell over the three.

So this fable, this tale Kaia had been raised on… it was true. All of it. The Force had brought her the crystal- _her,_ a nobody, an ordinary Jedi Knight who should've been buried in history with the rest of the Jedi Order. It had appeared with the rise of the Sith in the galaxy with few to oppose, a dying Resistance under the cruel strokes of Snoke and Ren and his Knights, with the disappearance of Luke Skywalker, their only hope.

It had come to Kaia Wyn, a Jedi who'd been transplanted into this time, into a place she did not belong.

"The Sith regarded it as an object of their heritage- if Ren finds out he will stop at nothing to get this- we need to hide it," Kaia said, urgency rising in her voice. Leia reached across the table and place her hand on Kaia's.

"It came to you. It came for you to use, for you to help bring peace to the galaxy. There is no hiding it," Leia quietly urged. Deep down, Kaia knew that Leia was right. They could not hide it. Somehow she had to learn to wield the powers held within the crystal.

It frightened her, the thought of having all of this on her shoulders. It should have never come to her- it should have come to Rey, so powerful and pure of heart. It should have come to Obi-wan all of those years ago but it chose to come to _Kaia-_ why her? Kaia's head shook and she looked away.

"So it shall be my weapon, then." She shook her head and quickly switched the topic- she did not want to ponder the implications of this any longer, but it meant something else. "Leia, now that you know it has come to me, you must tell me what Poe is after. What is so secret that you can't even tell Rey and me," Kaia urged, looking at the general. Much to her surprise, the general nodded in agreement.

"I would've told you earlier but I was afraid it would negatively affect the course of actions, the progress of events," she pursed her lips and sighed; Kaia saw pain behind Leia's eyes. "Poe is after Lor San Tekka- a member of the Church of the Force, and… one of Luke's closest friends and confidants. Luke entrusted the final piece of the map to his location with San Tekka who fled into hiding when Luke sent himself into exile."

Kaia nodded. She assumed something of this level and in fact, she was a bit eager as Luke would likely have answers she needed. From what she'd heard he would be a valuable ally and the value of having a Jedi Master at her side- she'd only heard of Luke through stories and tales but given his heritage it was more than likely that Luke had grown stronger than even Anakin himself. He had cut himself off from the Force, though. To do that… Kaia wasn't sure if he'd ever come back to the light.

Rey, on the other hand, nearly fell out of her seat at the mention of Luke.

"Poe's on his way to speak to San Tekka right now," Kaia stated. Leia nodded and continued on.

"He's a day out from Jakku- when he returns… you, him, and Rey will be entrusted to find my brother and _bring him home."_

* * *

It had been years since Kaia had built her first lightsaber but the skills and memory of how to do so had not faded, especially with the pieces directly in front of her. She'd asked for some isolation from anybody else for the time being and Leia found it appropriate to station Kaia in Commander Dameron's empty quarters for the time being, completely unaware of the tension between the pilot and the Force user. To the general, it had just seemed efficient, especially with the lack of bunks available until they were able to relocate the refugees they'd rescued.

Rose had insisted on lending Kaia her own personal astromech droid who was more than enthusiastic to retrieve any tools and spare parts that Kaia found herself needing to complete the lightsaber. She had just completed lining the chamber of the hilt with lithium before she picked up the crystal and studied it for a moment. The Heart of the Guardian. She was about to wield one of the most sacred Jedi objects in recorded history- so mythical it had been considered a legend to her up until now.

The fate of the galaxy seemed to rest on her shoulders. Or, the Force thought it had.

Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and rested the crystal inside of the chamber. She lifted her hand just above the surface of the crystal and faced her palm towards the cyan object, called out for the Force, let it flow through her. She felt the incredible energy of the crystal pulsing and ebbing within the breathing of the Force, just as alive as anything else in the base. The light surrounded her and slowly the wires began to creep away from the shell of the hilt, entwining themselves within the hardness of the kyber crystal, snaking through way through the material and weaving themselves into the very Heart of the Guardian. The more and more Kaia focused the wires began to pull the hilt towards the crystal, clasping it within the metal chamber, weaving the final pieces of the weapon together into something that the galaxy would fear.

When Kaia opened her eyes once more, it was not pieces of scrap metal laying on the table nor a blue rock in front of her- in front of her was a lightsaber. A Jedi's weapon. No ordinary lightsaber but one infused with the Heart of the Guardian itself, the path to peace and justice in the galaxy, a piercing light to destroy darkness.

* * *

The days that came to pass were full of the simplicity of the light and dark of sleep and consciousness. When Kaia had placed the saber inside of her palm again, feeling the familiar feel of a lightsaber hilt in her hand she'd felt complete once more. Whole. And it had felt _spectacular._ She no longer had to rely on the protection of a blaster any longer. She could infuse the Force with the swing of her blade, feel as strong as she had when she was a Jedi. As she trained with Rey she could feel energy and _power_ flowing through her, she could nearly feel the presences of Ahsoka and Anakin fighting alongside her. She could feel Obi-wan every time she touched the metal of the hilt, feel his power flow through her.

The death of Tallissan Lintra had come as a shock to most of the Resistance. She'd been well-liked throughout the base and when news of her death had broken many tears had been shed. Rey and Myra could not help but feel guilty for allowing it to happen, no matter how much Finn attempted to comfort them and insist that it wasn't their fault. Those closest to Tallissan insisted that this is how she would have wanted to go but even then, Kaia knew that that was a lousy attempt to make things better. Tallie would've wanted to die in a battle that meant something, not die because two Jedi moved too slowly. Kaia wasn't sure what she was going to say to Poe. She knew he'd loved Tallissan and even after their fling he'd still loved her as a sister.

Kaia knew that Poe would've wished to go to Tallissan's funeral but her younger sister, Kallie, couldn't bear to hold off on the funeral any longer. She claimed that Tallie wouldn't want them to linger on her death, she'd want them to move on with their lives and fight with passion and honor in her memory. The funeral had been rainy but that was alright because it muted the tears of those that surrounded the grave that had been dug for Tallie. It's what she'd wanted. Kaia had felt guilty staring at the freshly-dug earth for not giving the starfighter more of a chance.

The days spent training with her lightsaber reminded her the power of the force, the power of the Jedi, the influence they had held in the galaxy. She was reminded why they were loved, why they were feared.

She was the light side. She was the guardian.

"I've never seen a lightsaber with two colors before," Finn commented just as Rey and Kaia had parried each other off a little to hard for the both of them, both of them stumbling backwards, chests heaving as they caught their breath. As trained as Kaia was, even using Vapaad, Rey was still stronger than her. What Kaia lost to to Rey in raw strength, however, was the years and years of discipline and training using one of the most vicious forms of lightsaber combat- Vapaad. Obi-wan had been hesitant to teach Kaia the fighting style but Master Windu saw that it fit her rather well and insisted on it. She had learned much from Master Windu himself in the art of Vapaad and using it against Rey was the only thing that made their fights rather equal. Kaia stood up straight and turned to Finn, cocking one eyebrow though secretly grateful for the break.

"It's not a normal lightsaber," Rey said breathlessly. Kaia stared down at the blade of her saber before returning it back into the hilt. The outer edge and the glow of the saber was cyan in color while the core of it shone with a silvery white light- it certainly looked strange but Kaia found it mesmerizing to stare at, the power within it radiating so strongly.

"Yea, yea. Kaia's some sort of space savior or something," Finn scoffed. Kaia chuckled lightly at the harmless comment and opened her mouth to serve him a witty retort when the woman Kaia knew to be as Kaydel Co Connix came up jogging on the soil of the planet behind Finn, a concerned look on her face. Kaia and Rey both looked at the woman with concerned and curious looks on their faces- nobody interrupted them during training except for Finn, and most certainly not Connix. Finn turned and peered over his shoulder, body swiveling on the large boulder he was seated on to see what Connix had to say.

"The General needs to see you guys."

* * *

Connix had led the three straight towards the central command room in the heart of the base which only caused concern to rise in the three. Finn was used to such callings but Rey and Kaia were not the first to be called on for such things and Kaia knew that there was only one thing that would cause Leia to want to speak to them. She did not want to think of what was going on- perhaps Poe had returned but she knew this was not the case. Kaia would have sensed his return and felt his presence when she reached out. Instead, she was only met with dread.  
  
This had something to do with the mission to find Luke Skywalker but what it was, she could not yet decipher.

When they entered the command room, all heads turned to look at them. When Kaia made eye contact with Leia the general simply pursed her lips, closed her eyes, and shook her head before bowing her face down towards the table. Her shoulders were sagged in despair and the rest of the faces of the High Command looked absolutely hopeless- what had they seen?

It had not taken long at all for her eyes to wander from the forlorn faces of the High Command to the holograph recording playing out above the round table in between them. The people around the table broke apart and made space for the three of them to approach but Kaia had frozen in her spot when she saw what was playing out on the holograph.

A massacre. A complete and utter massacre of innocents while Stormtroopers fired upon rows of villagers who stood there screaming and begging for their lives while others burned down the rest of it with flamethrowers, destroyed everything in their paths.

But most importantly, Kaia saw Poe.

He was on his knees in front of a cloaked figure, blasters pointed at his head.

The cloaked figure waved a hand in front of the pilot's face and rendered him unconscious before whipping around, silently commanding the Stormtrooper to drag the commander towards the First Order ship.

Kaia was frozen where she stood.

A rage like she'd never felt before flooded her body only this time, she did not try to stop the feelings. She did not try to curb the emotions flooding her chest, causing her vision to turn red and her head to leak any rational thought- there was only anger. Only rage.

Kylo Ren had taken Poe Dameron.

She felt the needles of darkness begin to prickle in her skin and for just a moment the temptation to give in to the pain was too great, to embrace the pinpricks of shadow and manipulate the power to do her bidding. The veins of darkness attempted to thread themselves into the Force that flowed through her body.

For a second in time, Kaia wanted to allow it to infuse itself within her. She wanted to feel the power that rose from the shadows, the conflagration of the dark side. She wanted to embrace the rage within her and burst it outwards into something palpable, into something useful.

Kaia Wyn wanted to fall.

She ignored the banter of the High Command that followed- they were below her, they were weak. Pointless to the power she contained and she felt something buzzing within her, something invading her body-

_Light._

The darkness invading her body shrieked in terror and pain as the light approached, so powerful and strong and entirely impossible to ignore- Kaia stumbled backwards but hands that burned so delightfully gripped her arms, burned away the shadows back to the depths they came from- " _Kaia."_

Rey's voice had broken her from her trance and Kaia found herself… not at all where she expected. When she'd fallen into the haze of anger and rage she'd been in the control center, listening to the High Command argue over the fate of Commander Poe Dameron but now she stared at the familiar ceiling of the same pilot's quarters, the faces of Finn, Rey, and Rose staring down at her, scrunched up in worry. Kaia propped herself up onto her elbows, recognizing she'd been placed onto the bed. "What happened?" The three standing above her all looked at each other with hesitancy in their eyes.

"Kaia, you… the dark side, it, it… it overtook you. I had to subdue you and get you out of there before High Command noticed," Rey said, biting her bottom lip. Kaia's eyes fell down to her lap. So she _had_ nearly fallen and Rey had even been able to sense it. _So much for being chosen as the Guardian,_ Kaia bitterly thought to herself. Stars, she was embarrassed- all of this over a pilot.

She didn't even know what to say to Rey and instead, she just collapsed backwards onto the bed. She was exhausted- the past few days of training she'd been at it nearly nonstop, desperate to cling to the power she'd had when she was a Jedi, desperate to develop enough energy and strength to make use of the Heart of the Guardian, to be what the galaxy had needed. She was just tired.  
  
Rose and Finn shuffled out of the room and Rey lay next to Kaia on the bed, stroking the top of her friend's head while she slowly drifted off into a dreamless sleep. Rey knew how much she cared for Poe, and she'd had conversations with Poe about his feelings for the Force user. There was something rather frustrating going on between the two of them- Rey wished she could be them. She wished that the one she loved was not a Sith, not a follower of the dark side, not everything she was working to destroy. It was frustrating to watch her friends push away their feelings for each other over miniscule things when Rey sat here, day after day, struggling and yearning for something she could never have.


	18. In the Air

The pain ebbed through his head from the blows he'd been dealt, blood trickled from cuts in his lips and his face- the soreness beneath his skin was sure to turn his face into a wall of bruises within hours. His muscles were screaming from the beatings he'd taken, the burns inflicted upon him, the numerous torture methods employed by the Knights of Ren evident throughout not only his entire mind but his body as well- but he'd proven to be steadfast. The Commander had given up no secrets of the Resistance or of Luke Skywalker.  
  
All of the pains he'd suffered faded away once he saw _him._ The masked creature pacing about the room before Poe, who'd been strapped into a chair, rendering him entirely immobile. The monster was dressed in black from head to toe with a long, billowing black cloak wrapped around his shoulders and the hilt of the unstable and dangerous weapon at his side. Poe knew this monster. He knew this monster more than he would've liked. The grogginess never faded from Poe's head when he awoke from his sleep- if you could call getting knocked out by a fist to the head sleep.

"I had no idea the Resistance would send their best pilot to such a place. Comfortable?" The monotone voice asked through the mask. Poe grimaced internally but tried to appear as calm and confident on the outside as best he could. He needed to. He couldn't show weakness, not to this monster.

"Not really," Poe smoothly replied, watching the masked creature approach him with wary eyes.

"I'm impressed. No one has been able to get out of you what you did with the map."

 _You can thank your mother for that,_ Poe bitterly thought to himself. He didn't dare say the words aloud for with Ren, chances like that were not ones easily taken. He had a short fuse. As much as Poe was willing to die for the Resistance he did not want to give Ren the satisfaction of being the one to murder him. "Might wanna rethink your technique."

Ren simply approached Poe and stared down at the pilot through his mask- so bold, so brave. He was no match for the power Ren possessed, the power the dark side gave him. Once, he had seen this man as an equal. As a friend. As a brother. Now, he was nothing but Resistance scum working with the very people who were bring chaos and discord to the galaxy. Ren did not feel the need to answer Poe and instead, reached his hand out until it was merely inches away from the pilot's face. He danced around the fringes of Poe's mind at first while the pilot shifted uncomfortably. He prodded at the defenses set up around the commander's mind- so his mother had taken precautions. Intelligent, on her behalf. But this would only make this harder for the pilot, more painful when Ren had to carve his way into Poe's mind.

His hand was inches away from his face and he began to push now, reach out with knives formed from the Force to cut through the walls in Poe's mind. "Where is it?" Ren asked. The pilot began to shift in the chair as light traces of pain began to dance around his body- sweat beaded on his forehead and he pursed his lips as he fought as hard as he knew how against the barrage but it did not matter for it was no use.

"The Resistance will not be intimidated by you," Poe muttered through clenched teeth, fighting off the pain.

"Where... is it?" Ren demanded, thrusting forward with the Force and causing Poe's back to arch in the chair, screams reverberating throughout the chamber as Ren pushed into the commander's mind to see everything his consciousnesshad to offer.

* * *

Poe groaned when he was thrown on the floor of the prison cell, the smooth linoleum under his face providing some relief to his face through the coldness of the floor. When he'd learned that he was to be transferred to Hux's grasp he simply wished that Ren would've killed him after he found what he had wanted.

Ren did not know the location of the map but he did know _about her_ , and he would never be able to forgive himself for that. He had willed everything he had within him to keep any traces of Kaia hidden for if Ren knew there was a Jedi out there to aid Luke Skywalker once the Resistance inevitably found him, there's no telling what Ren would do. And now, that was a reality. Ren knew of her existence.

There was nothing he could do and so he simply lay on the hard floor of the cell trying to collect himself but every fiber of his entire being was screaming and aching with pain from the brutal beating that the Knights of Ren had put him through before turning him over to their master. Of course Ren had not deemed Poe important enough to initially deal with himself. Even after all these years the man still knew how to make things so personally insulting.

Now he didn't even want to bother with Poe and had left him under the cruel eye of Hux. If there was anybody who Poe hated more than Ren, it was Hux, and that was for good reason.

Slowly but surely with many groans and whimpers of pain, Poe had managed to pull himself up into a sitting position against the wall and as the fresh pain from the movement faded away Poe focused on slowing his breathing and studying his surroundings. There was no escape from this one- he'd have to wait for somebody to come _. Would they ever come_? Or would they leave him to rot in the cell, perhaps terminated once they needed the space for the next prisoner-

No. They would come for him. They had to. He'd do it for anybody else.

All he could do was wait.

* * *

"We simply do not have the numbers nor resources to launch a full-scale attack on a Star Destroyer at this moment, let alone board the ship and escape with a highly-sought prisoner unscathed," a member of the High Command reasoned. Finn, Rey, and Kaia had been called to sit in on the meeting between the High Command members while they had a discussion over what to do concerning the fate of Commander Poe Dameron. Leia had thought it would be beneficial to have them sit in on the commentary seeing as they were the three closest to Poe- deep down she'd thought that having his friends there would sway more of them into saving him but it seemed to have little to no effect to those who opposed a rescue mission.

"Lack of resources will not be an issue. There have been more asinine attempts to save other's lives within our organization," the man speaking nodded to Leia, referring to the historic rescue of Leia Organa by Luke Skywalker and Han Solo. "With two Jedi by our side, equipped with their weapons as well as some of the finest fighters we have to offer, it should be more than enough to extract Commander Dameron from the ship."

Kaia had been getting used to being called a Jedi around the Resistance. No matter how many times they were told the people could not seem to understand why she'd left the Jedi and that no, that did not automatically make her some sort of evil being. She'd given up on correcting them, for the most part. She could not explain it to every soul who asked and if they still did not understand the concept, so be it. In their eyes, she was a Jedi.

"I would not deem it wise to send both of the Jedi and more fighters to rescue Dameron- should they get caught, or anything worse, then the Resistance will be out of its most valuable assets and allies," another voice said from the High Command. She was listening intently to the words and decisions of the High Command- she didn't appreciate being considered an asset by the Resistance or the fact that they spoke as they could control what she did but now was not the time to argue with those sentiments. If it meant a rescue mission for Poe, she'd accept the label.

"We have to consider the possibility of lives lost- if a mission was sent to extract Dameron there would undoubtedly be losses across the board- is this something Dameron would want? More importantly, is this something the Resistance can afford?" Another man from the command asked.

"With all due respect, Commander Dameron is a symbol of hope in the Resistance. We all know very well the positivity and passion he inspires to those below him- leaving him to suffer and die under the grasps of the First Order would not be taken lightly. This is something we must consider," another woman urged. At this point, Leia picked her head up and began to speak.

"She's right. Losing Poe would mean losing some of the passion and hope that we've fought so hard for. Maybe he wouldn't want this but that's exactly why we need to save him- he's selfless, he's passionate, he's exactly what the Resistance needs right now," Leia finished. The rest of the council was quiet after the general's words until Admiral Ackbar decided to add some words to what Leia had said.

"As far as we know, not even the First Order has located Commander Dameron's astromech droid as of yet. It's believed that Dameron gave something the First Order wants to the droid. Unless Dameron breaks…"

"He won't," Leia assured. Ackbar nodded at her and continued. Leia trusted that Poe wouldn't break. If there was one thing that she loved and hated most about the man it was his stubbornness.

"…the droid contains the answers we need, and the answers Dameron got captured in order to keep safe. The longer Dameron is under their discretion we have to act as though this is a security issue, even if the general is positive he will not break."

The High Command began to murmur amongst themselves and discuss but all of the voices turned into a constant hum that whined in Kaia's ears. She had a saber. She'd been training, she was strong. She knew what had to be done. When she began to speak, Poe and Finn looked at her intently. The three of them knew it wasn't quite their place to speak within the High Command but Kaia had had enough. While she did not miss the Jedi Order and did not regret her decision she did miss the respect she'd held from those around her. The High Command respected her and Rey but even then, other than Leia they did not seem to fully trust her.

"If the command allows it, I will lead the mission myself to extract Commander Dameron," she spoke concisely and clearly, not finding much difficulty in keeping her emotions underneath her. "We will need minimal X-wings and pilots to accompany us, if any. I'll take Rey and Finn. With some stealth we should be able to escape with Dameron without the Resistance suffering any losses."

The High Command had all turned to stare at Kaia and where such a thing would have bothered Rey, it did not unnerve Kaia in the slightest. There had been nothing more nerve-wracking than standing before the Jedi Council and she'd done that countless times. No, to her, the High Command of the Resistance was nothing. Nothing compared to what she'd used to stand before.

"And deliver both of you directly into the hands of the enemy? I think not," one of the members spoke haughtily as if such an idea was asinine. Kaia chuckled.  
  
"With all due respect, I've been in far stickier situations than this with a lot more to lose and a whole lot more to go up against. All that's here is Stormtroopers and one angry Sith," Kaia spoke. The sickening reality was that even if Kylo Ren murdered Kaia, she was confident he wouldn't kill Rey, not with the connection they had. And there were, in fact, two Sith. From what Rey and Leia had told her, though, the First Order's elusive supreme leader rarely reared from the shadows.

"Are you doubting our judgement?" The same member said incredulously as they looked at her. It was true that not all of the members of the High Command trusted her, Poe had told her that himself. Some of them were wary of her presence and had the idea that perhaps she was a plant sent by Snoke, or that she'd kill them all and retreat to the dark side with Kylo Ren and the First Order. She did not care. In time, they'd come to learn her true allegiance. To the Force.

"No, she's not," Leia shot a harsh glare at the command member who'd spoke up before he gaze returned back to Kaia. "Kaia. You're sure you could pull this off? NO backup?"

Kaia nodded and Rey and Finn began to enthusiastically nod on either side of her. "I can't be sure of anything, general, but I can assure you that there will be no risks of sending us after Commander Dameron."

* * *

"I can't believe you convinced them!" Finn celebrated as they exited the High Command chambers. After a few more moments of discussion that was ultimately ended by Leia, the Resistance had granted the trio permission to take the _Nightfall_ and rescue Dameron. It had not been hard with Kaia's assurance that they would, at the very least, avoid imprisonment by the First Order. Though, they did not seem to want to send any pilots or X-wings to accompany them and so the _Nightfall_ would be going by herself with only the two Force users and ex-Stormtrooper to man her. Of course, Finn had naturally been rather insistent that Rose could be of use to them on the mission but Kaia was afraid that having another extra besides Finn would only slow them down. The only reason she had not opposed Finn's presence on the mission was due to his knowledge of the layout of First Order ships.

"This has only just begun, Finn. We don't even know where he's being held," Rey told him, quieting him down for a moment. Well they'd been given permission to extract Poe Dameron from Kylo Ren's grasp, they'd have to wait for Resistance and New Republic intelligence to learn that information themselves. That would take too long. Kaia could find him, she feel it.

Leia knew somebody who might know more than any Resistance agent could ever find out.

While she'd been leading in front of a distracted Rey and Finn Leia had pulled Kaia aside in the hallway, getting her face close to Kaia's and looking close into her eyes. Though Leia had been the one to instigate the interaction she saw some resembling fear in Kaia's eyes and Leia's brows furrowed. She knew that the Force user cared about her commander but even then, the stout teachings of the Jedi would never truly fade away. "Kaia," Leia began.

"They're going to kill him, aren't they?" Her voice was smooth and even but she'd been mulling over the unavoidable truth for a while now: though Rey was convinced otherwise, she'd seen and heard too much proof that Ren was a ruthless killer and she did not see why Poe would be an exception. He had to have known that the loss of such a commander would be an absolute devastation to the Resistance. If he was alive, hope was alive. She watched as Leia pursed her lips.

"We can't ever be sure of what's to come." She wasn't sure what else to say- Leia clung to the hope that somewhere deep within Ren, the spirit of Ben Solo was alive but that dream had been seeming to grow farther and farther from reach. Still… if somebody besides Rey could believe that, _somebody who could help…_ Luke may have been a Jedi Master but Kaia had lived within the Jedi Order. She had given Leia more hope than anything in recent years had. "But I don't think Ben can bring himself to kill Poe."

It was the first time Kaia had heard anybody other than Rey refer to the Sith as Ren. Perhaps within the shell of a great man still stood the Skywalker that Ben Solo was.

"They… they grew up together. Best friends, even. Before Poe left for spicerunning, anyways," Leia murmured, whispering as though the words were just a fairy tale, a fable she'd been telling herself. But it wasn't. It was the truth, and that hurt more than anything. She remembered cringing when the two young boys with overflowing, dark curly hair would run by in a blur of laughing. Ben had been such a quiet, strange child but Poe had been the only one to bring him out of his shell. Poe had a tendency to do that.

"It will not last long. He will sever whatever he can to try and escape his truth," Kaia told Leia. Leia nodded, and clasped Kaia's hands in her.

"Bring Poe home."

Kaia looked down at their hands and then back up to Leia's face, unsure of what to say. Leia knew what to say, though. She always did.  
  
"I know somebody who will know where Poe is."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, so just a warning that NEXT CHAPTER is the chapter where a lot of the tags will come up. Just a forewarning in case you might want to skip. I'll put a reminder at the beginning of next chapter too.


	19. Familiar Faces

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you read this chapter, I have taken certain portions out of it and this story because I think I have upset some people. I am deeply and genuinely sorry if I have hurt you.

The crew of the _Nightfall_ had spent _days_ scouring the galaxy for a trace of Han Solo but the man was elusive. Leia had some ideas as to where he could be or where to look but it seemed as though everybody she'd pointed them to was looking for him as well. Some of them with some very obviously _bad_ intentions. The more scum and smugglers and gangs they talked to about the whereabouts of the infamous smuggler, the more Kaia realized that Han Solo was _still_ one of the most wanted men in the galaxy. Finn and Rey assured her that this was typical but it did worry Kaia that there were so many people after him. _He's the best,_ they would assure her. _Always escapes in the end._

Well, he sure as stars not going to escape from Kaia.

She could barely sleep.

At times, she felt something through the Force. Something so far away it was miniscule, really, but she knew what it was.

It was Poe.

They came as a tiny pinprick of pain, like she'd laid on a barely noticeable needle but since it was Poe, she noticed it. Wherever he was, he was in pain. She tried to find him, tried to find where the feeling was coming from but it was too dark. Ren was hiding their location and there was nothing Kaia could do. She would barely breath at night when she lay down to rest, terrified that she would no longer feel pain, that there would be a nothingness leaving an empty void that nobody could fill. Nobody could fill Poe's shoes. They needed to find him, and they needed to find him fast. Kaia wasn't sure Ren could twist Poe's mind but she did not want to see the pilot's limits tested.

At the exact moment they were minutes away from the planet they'd been pointed to next in the never-ending search for Han Solo. If Resistance or New Republic intelligence located the location Poe was being kept at then they could skip finding the smuggler but it seemed as though Ren was particularly fond of hide and seek. Rey was lying on the booth, tossing a ball up into the air and catching it just above her palm with the Force, repeating the motion over and over again. Finn was reassembling his blaster from fixing it. The last planet they'd had a run in with a few smugglers who weren't fond of Han nor the Resistance. Kaia was poring over a datapad, reading of any sort of suspicious movements throughout the galaxy to see if any planet hinted at shipping out to the First Order. So far, nothing. "You really think he's going to be here?" Rey asked. They were currently headed towards Llanic, a planet at the crossroads of several smuggling and trade routes. The planet was essentially just a haven for criminals and scum in the galaxy. Exactly the place you'd go to avoid being found.

"Lallani frequents this place," Kaia said mindlessly as she continued to scroll through the datapad. Finn glanced at her.

"Like, froze-you-in-carbon-for-57-years Lallani?"

Kaia nodded. "That would be the one."

"I'm not sure she'd touch you. Would she really want to face the wrath of Leia?"

"Nobody intimidates Lallani. She's after my head, and nothing less than that. I doubt she wants me back alive this time," Kaia said with a sigh. She shook her head. With a blaster and Rey had her side she was confident she'd be able to hold Lallani off, and found it fortunate that her force of Mandalorian bounty hunters were gone. While it was a tragedy that the Empire had culled most of the Mandalorian people she supposed it was a blessing in itself. Mandalorians had always been an absolute bitch to take care of. Beskar was impossible to get around. "If we could just try to get in and out of here as soon as possible, that'd be great."

"We'll see what we can do about that. According to Kanjiclub he's on Llanic right now," Finn said. Rey caught the ball in her hand now and propped herself up on her elbows.

"You're listening to Kanjiclub?" Rey asked incredulously. Finn shrugged.

"Told them I was a part of the Irving Boys. Seemed legit enough."  
  
Now Kaia stared at Finn. "Legit _enough?_ Finn, this is impor-"

The alarms started to go off, signifying that the ship was about to drop from hyperspeed and enter the atmosphere of the planet. Rey jumped up and hurried to the cockpit while Finn followed to assist her. Kaia sighed and shook her head. Poe was still alive but it was fading fast. The pinpricks of pain seemed to fade and only hours ago she'd awoken with a start, terrified she could no longer feel it but it was just so incredibly faint… she mindlessly reached down and lightly touched the metal of her saber. If they could find him, she could rescue him.

Following Rey and Finn to the cockpit, Kaia lingered at the entrance and braced herself against one of the edges of the entryway while Rey and Finn guided the ship towards the planet before them. "So… what exactly are we looking for here?"  
  
"Well, Miss Wyn, I believe we are looking for Han Solo, the beloved-"

"Yea, Han Solo, genius," Finn shot at the golden droid, causing him to stop midsentence. "Um… he's just a dude. What we're really looking for is Chewie."

"Chewie?" Kaia asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Huge, furry Wookie."

Kaia nodded. She'd recalled many troubles on the world Kashyyyk while she was with the Order and though she herself had never been sent to the homeworld of the Wookies, she'd kept herself quite updated on the goings on that had been happening there. A wookie and a man. Vague enough description but she supposed with some prodding she'd be able to locate them if they were here. That was a very big _if._ Rey seemed fairly certain that the possibility of them being on the other side of the galaxy at that exact moment was rather large. Kaia hadn't met Han, but she'd heard enough about him to believe that he was their only hope to finding Poe as quickly as possible.

* * *

Kaia was beginning to understand why criminals were a fan of this city.

It was so easy to lurk through the crowds here without detection. The streets, crowded by buildings and cantinas on either side, were completely covered by dark fabric that blocked nearly all of the sun out. With what little light there was available in the street it was difficult to see any faces. Where there were not entrances there were tiny stalls that caused the street to be even more crammed, luring anybody who dared walk by in with wares and various foods. Beings continuously stopped those who passed by to offer their services for illegal tasks or dirty jobs that nobody else wanted. There was a stench permeating the air around her though Kaia could not pinpoint what exactly that was, and it worried her.

When they'd arrived, they had had a kriffing hard time finding a port that wasn't crammed full of a hodge pop of ships. _"Nothing will happen to this ship,"_ Rey had told the portmaster before they'd left.

Most importantly, she'd been trailing a Wookie for a few minutes now, pushing her way through the crowd in an attempt to catch up with the large, furry creature.

She'd sensed him soon after she'd had difficulty shushing away a particularly insistent Zygerrian who was trying to convince Kaia that he had some specimens worth seeing. The wookie had brushed behind her and she'd sensed him almost right away, but to her dismay there seemed to be no man accompanying him. However, she _knew_ that this was Chewie. It had to be. Wookies would not otherwise find themselves in a place such as this.

The Wookie continued to push his way through the crowd, though most scattered aside at the sight of such a large creature, only to reform a solid river of people in time for Kaia to have to force them out of her way. Of course, she could brandish her saber and clear a path but Leia insisted on keeping a low profile for as long as possible. The longer that Ren was unaware of her existence, the better.

Soon, she grew closer and closer to the wookie who continuously turned corners and shoved through the throngs of people. Eventually, he turned a sharp corner into an alleyway free of beings and she quickly swerved in front of a man who shouted at her in blame of dropping his things, but she did not care, she was right on his tail-

"I'll give you one chance to turn around and stop following Chewie," a grizzled voice beside her growled. Kaia closed her eyes and sighed as she felt a blaster click next to her ear. In one swift motion, she reached up and grabbed the blaster out of the man's hand, twisting around and pointing it directly at his head. From the side she sensed the wookie drawing his weapon and aiming but with a flick of her wrist the bowcaster fell to the ground beside the wookie. Before he could reach down to recover it Kaia had drawn her saber and drawn it dangerously close to the man's next, crossing over her shoulder and pointing the blaster at the wookie.

Of course, it had all been in self defense for she did not doubt the pair would've shot her.

The wookie alone had been a dead giveaway that this man was Han Solo but staring into his eyes, any inkling of a doubt she'd had had left her. This man had seen _pain,_ he'd seen violence, he'd seen adventure, he'd seen _hope._ He stared back down at her with furrowed brows and she could sense the utter confusion emanating from him.

There was no hope left in Han Solo's eyes.

Taking a step backwards, the saber extinguished and she lowered the hilt to her side, spinning the blaster around so the handle was facing Han and extending it to him. He raised one eyebrow and looked down at the silver handle of the blaster while the wookie gently roared from next to Kaia, reaching down for his bowcaster. "This some kind of set up or something?" Han asked. Kaia smiled and shook her head.

"Only hoping that you're the man I'm looking for."

"Lots of people are out there looking for me, kid," Han said with a sigh.

"And I think I'm just about the only one that doesn't want to kill you," Kaia said.

"Huh." Han nodded and reached up, taking his blaster from Kaia's grasp. "And how do you know I'm not gonna kill you?"

"If you wanted to, you would've already. Besides, it's been a while since you've seen one of these," Kaia said as she holstered the lightsaber hilt back into the belt around her waist. Han nodded suspiciously and glanced to the wookie who was approaching the two.

"No, Chewie. She's alright, I think." He focused back on Kaia. "So… who sent you, exactly?" Han had a sinking feeling that he knew exactly who had sent the girl with the lightsaber in front of him but it was something he didn't want to admit to himself.

"Han!" A bright voice said from the entryway of the alley. Han pursed his lips and closed his eyes, cursing silently before turning and facing Rey and Finn who'd finally found them. Before he turned to face Rey he opened his eyes and smiled.

"Hey, kid."

* * *

"The _what_ to the _who_ from the _where?"_ Han asked in disbelief, scrunching up his face while he set the bottle he'd been holding down on the table in front of him. They'd found a booth near the back of a dimly-lit restaurant, relatively empty compared to the chaos in the streets. Had had grumbled about it the entire way there and never ceased to complain but he still complied with Rey's request nonetheless. He was still irritated that the girl hadn't accepted his offer to co-pilot the _Falcon_ with him, but he'd always had such a fondness for the girl he'd followed her. He knew that this likely meant getting wrapped up in Resistance business again but after what had happened with Ben… he'd sworn it off. All of it. He didn't think anything could get him to come back again, not even Leia.

Until Rey had told him they'd found the map to Luke Skywalker from some old priest who used to run around with Luke.

When he'd been younger he'd been so reluctant to join the fight against the Empire, to believe in all of the nonsense that Luke and Leia had brought into his life, and that old crone Ben Kenobi… all these years later he could've never felt so similarly only this time, he had a _reason_ to want to stay away. He'd failed his family. He'd failed the galaxy. And now, they wanted to drag him back into it.

"The map to Luke Skywalker from-"

"Yea, I get it, kid. You're never gonna find him. He just… he doesn't want to be found. And he's never gonna be," Han said with a sigh, having recovered his breath and taking another sip out of his bottle. Chewie let out a soft roar besides him and Han shook his head. "No, Chewie. We're not- no. We're done with that."

"Han, the Resistance _needs_ you. Leia _needs_ you. Ben… he needs you more than you'll ever know," Rey insisted, leaning across the table. Kaia listened to the conversation but she occasionally swept her eyes over the café they were in. So far it did not appear they'd caught many eyes but in a place like this, with a man as wanted as Han… she did not want to take any chances. They _needed_ to get to Poe.

Han had already begun to argue with Rey when she had started to speak but when she had brought Ben's name up, he had faltered for a moment.

Ben wasn't gone. As much as he resisted the idea from other people, he believed that. He _knew_ that. It was just convincing other people that was the issue. How were you supposed to convince _anybody_ that the Jedi-killer had any sort of light inside of him?

The only person who believed that was Leia.

And that's why he'd left.

He couldn't bear being around her when what they believed was so similar. She was so stubborn- he loved that about her- but it would have driven her to do something about it had Han stayed. So he'd had to leave. He didn't want to retrieve Ben from Snoke. He didn't want to be the one to bring the Jedi-killer home.

"Ben is gone."

"You don't believe that," Kaia said, turning and facing the man. He was practically broadcasting to the entire world that he was lying about that- Han did not believe Ben was gone and she could sense that immediately.

"What do you know? Who are you, anyways?" Han inquired, raising one eyebrow. His eyes met Kaia but Finn was quick to respond-

"There will be time to explain that later. We just need your help for the time being-" he was cut short when Kaia had slid out of the booth and paced across the floor of the café towards the bar where several different patrons were seated- one which had turned his body and directed his focus at those at the booth. Rey's hand snaked down to the hilt of her saber and Chewie placed his paws on his bowcaster, ready to take it off of his back at a moment's notice. Han sighed. "I have a bad feeling about this."

Meanwhile, Kaia was already approaching the man at the bar and before he could speak she stared deeply into his eyes. "You're going to leave us alone. You did not see anything here."

The man furrowed his brows and stared back at her. "Yea, I… I'll leave you alone," he murmured, a ton of confusion in his voice until he turned back around to the bar and continued to work on his drink. When she turned back around all of those at the booth had already emerged, Han leaving a few credits on the table for the drinks they had ordered.

"I think our time has run out," Han said from behind Kaia, placing a hand on her shoulder. "How about I show you the Falcon and you tell me where you're from?"

"We'll get back to the Nightfall and transmit the coordinates to your ship," Finn told Han as the five of them began to rush out of the restaurant, attempting to remain as inconspicuous as possible. If one man had noticed him it was more than likely that there had been others that had spotted them in the streets of the city. They emerged from the restaurant and began to trail behind Finn in the river of people, feeling less and less secure in the crowds of people. They weren't too incredibly far from the port they'd left the _Nightfall_ at and so Finn began to walk faster and faster towards where they'd left there ship with the portmaster Kaia had talked to- if they could get to the Nightfall they could drop Han off at the Falcon for a quick escape from the seedy planet.

This time in the streets, every single being surrounding them was a possible threat. Though it was an easy planet to go unnoticed it wasn't exactly the ideal place for those with large bounties on their heads to come to as the ones here held no morals and no qualms about turning in their own to the First Order.

They rounded the corner and entered the doorway into the port that the _Nightfall_ was being held in and the moment Finn had laid eyes on what had been behind he'd skidded to a stop and thrown himself backwards, nearly knocking Rey and Kaia over. The wookie caught both Rey and Kaia from tumbling onto the pavement from Finn's bodyweight. "What the kriff are you doing?" Han snarled as Finn's arm pressed him against the wall.

"Do you want the good news or the bad news?" Finn asked in a hush voice.

"Just news!" Rey furiously whispered back. Kaia quietly thanked the wookie.

"Well, the First Order found us- but they didn't see me-"

" _Hey, who's over there?"_ A voice called out from behind the voice scrambler of a Stormtrooper helmet. Kaia, Han, and Rey all stared at Finn with an annoyed look on their face while Chewie let out a roar.

"We gotta run!" Han said. The five of them immediately sprang into a run through the crowd of the streets. Kaia had taken the rear, keeping the form of Finn in front of her while Chewie took the lead and plowed his way through the crowds in the streets. Unfortunately for them, the Stormtroopers had followed them out of the port and were now chasing them and creating a clear path for themselves through the crowds. As they begun to shoot at the group sprinting through the streets, Kaia had begun to turn around and deflect the blaster shots to the side, missing the group by mere inches and beginning to strike people and buildings around them. It was growing increasingly difficult as the scum began to scurry into buildings to escape the chase, while Chewie guided them back to where the _Falcon_ was being kept.

From the front of the line Chewie had begun to occasionally turn around to fire shots from his bowcaster at the Stormtroopers pursuing them. The weapon sent them flying through the area and caused quite a scene, giving them more space to work with, just enough to get to the _Falcon._

Eventually they turned into a new port and sitting right there was….

" _That_ piece of junk?" Kaia called ahead.

"This piece of junk made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs!" Han shouted back. Kaia hardly believed that such garbage could accomplish such a feat but then again, she'd heard that Han Solo was the best pilot in the entire galaxy.

The portmaster approached Han and began to shout at him, asking for his credits while an astromech droid that had been waiting on the ramp of the ship scurried up it with worried beeps while Han and Chewie began to make for the cockpit. "Kaia-" Rey shouted, turning around and facing Kaia. All she had to do was nod and Rey took the saber from her hilt and released it at the same time Kaia released hers. Finn followed Han and Chewie up the ramp while Kaia and Rey lined up next to each other at the bottom while Stormtroopers began to flood around the corner, sending bolts left and right towards the Falcon.

Kaia and Rey deflected the bolts with their sabers as they inched themselves backwards up the ramp, the bolts scattering all across the port and leaving marks left and right. The Stormtroopers continued to shout at Kaia and Rey but all the two could hear was each other and their blood rushing in their ears while they focused on the Force and nothing but the Force.

When they had reached the top of the ramp the astromech droid had already begun to raise the ramp and eventually they found it closing, the sound of blasters hitting the outside of the ship loud as the ship whirred to life and they got the shields up and running. The ship was a little cleaner on the inside than it was on the outside but Rey took no time in taking off into one of the tunnels, shouting over her shoulder to Kaia that she was going to man the guns for Han and to strap in somewhere. Kaia cursed silently and began to run in the opposite direction, through the tunnels of the ship and then through another cabin that looked suspiciously similar to the _Nightfall's,_ sarlaac board on the table and all. She continued on, drawn by the voices of Han and the roars of Chewie as they argued back and forth while Finn interjected, attempting to get the ship off of the ground. The pinging of blasters had stopped, signifying that they'd gotten the shields up in time and soon Rey would be able to defend them though not until they got into the air.

"… _NO,_ we can't do that, Chewie, we don't have time!" Han shouted over to the wookie. The wookie roared at Han while continuing to flip switches on the control panel. "I don't _care_ if it's going to hurt part of the cooling system, we can fix that later!"

The wookie roared in annoyance but continued to do as Han ordered. "What about the Nightfall? You've got to get us back to it, Poe's gonna kill us-"

"You might have to kiss that piece of junk goodbye for now," Han called out. "Have anything valuable on there?"  
  
"Not personals- no- but important Resistance coordinates and locations!" Finn shouted back. Han stopped what he was doing and looked over his shoulder.

"You left a ship with that kriffing information all alone?" He shouted at Finn. Meanwhile, through the windows of the ship Kaia could see an assortment of Stormtroopers all aiming for the ship.

"Han, we've got to go!" Kaia shouted, slipping into the seat behind his and strapping herself in with the seatbelt.

"Kaia had it! She-"

"Rooke mistake, kid! Now hold on!" Han shouted as he gripped the steering of the ship and began to lift the ship off of the ground. Kaia gripped the sides of the seat as the ship jerkily lifted from the ground and began to rise in the air above the port. She was praying to ever Jedi Master she'd ever known that this man was a good a pilot as the talk made him out to be or else they'd be dead meat. She had no doubt that First Order forces were already on their way down to deal with the ship that Han had called the _Falcon_ and take all of them into custody. As Han guided the ship out of the station more smoothly now her mind began to wander- perhaps it _was_ foolish to take this mission to save Poe. She presumed that Kylo Ren and the other general of the First Order that Poe had always held such disdain for would stop at _nothing_ to capture two Jedi, a First Order defector, a man who'd been a captain of the Rebellion and Kylo Ren's father, and a wookie who was essentially Ren's uncle.

Perhaps not the brightest idea.

But Kaia was sure that Poe would've done dumber for people he loved less and that is why she felt such a strong urge to continue on.

Once they'd risen above the port, Kaia wasn't sure to expect but it was _not_ Han kicking the Falcon into full speed towards the atmosphere of the planet. She was pressed against the back of her seat with a grimace while she spotted TIE fighters out of the windows, coming at them with the ferocity and intensity that made her rather unsure if they were planning on taking them prisoner or not. "Han, the Nightfall!" Finn shouted.

"Do you want to get out of here alive or dead, kid?" Han shouted backwards.

"If the First Order finds the Resistance it doesn't matter!" Finn shouted back. Han groaned audibly from the front and flipped the Falcon back down towards the planet. Kaia could faintly hear the guns from the ship firing at the TIE fighters now but could not see the carnage from Rey's shots due to the Falcon hurtling back towards the city.  
  
"What port?" Han asked.

"On the east end of town- the only other one with private ports!" Finn responded. Han leveled the ship out harshly, gliding just above the tops of the planet while jerking the ship back and forth to avoid all of the blasts from the TIE fighters.

"Rey, can you hear me?" Han shouted through the comms system. She heard a faint feminine voice call back through the comms but was too far away to hear what Rey had said. "I need you to target the Nightfall."

"WHAT?" Kaia and Finn shouted at the same time.  
  
"You're not gonna be able to get to it, and if what you believe what you said then it's gotta be destroyed!" Han shouted back. Kaia's stomach churned; Poe was _not_ going to be happy. Not only did he lose his X-wing on Jakku but now he was going to lose the _Nightfall_ as well? Remembering how unhappy this was going to make Poe only punched Kaia in the gut when she remembered the death of Tallissan. It was certainly going to be quite the welcome back to the Resistance for Poe…

The _Nightfall_ was gone in the blink of an eye. One moment it had been sitting there so neatly in the port, the portmaster keeping true to the mind trick Rey had pulled on the woman and the next it was a ball of fire and fury when Rey had so precisely hit it. She had never felt much attachment to ships before but she could not help but feel sad as they flew away from the wreck of the _Nightfall._ So many memories had been made on that ship. _So much time with Poe._ And now, it was a fiery mess on a planet that didn't deserve to be the resting place of the ship. Beside her, she felt Finn relaying through the same feelings. She supposed it had to be even harder for him.

"Chewie, how close is the hyperdrive to being ready, we're gonna need it soon!" Han called out to the Wookie as he inverted the Falcon to dodge a TIE fighter before facing it upwards and going full speed towards the edge of the atmosphere. TIE fighters continued to burst into flames around them while Rey focused as well as she could on taking out the First Order ships. The wookie roared something to Han.

"Well, we don't have enough time! Punch it, Chewie!" Han shouted just as they breached the atmosphere far enough away from the planet to launch the ship into hyperspeed. Kaia breathed a sigh of relief and shut her eyes when she felt the leap occur and saw the ship immersed in the white streaks of hyperspace. Finn and Han let out a quick cheer and she could hear Rey's relief through the comms as well as feel it flooding through the entire ship. Whatever melancholy they'd felt about the destruction and loss of their ship was lost in the relief of escaping from that planet alive. "I don't know who you are kid, but you just experienced your first flight the best pilot in the galaxy," Han gloated from the front seat. Kaia smiled softly and opened her eyes while shaking her head.

"I've already done that, and it wasn't with you."

Han turned around in his seat, face alarmed. "Who?" He said indignantly, rousing laughter from Chewie and Finn.  
  
"Poe Dameron," Kaia said matter-of-factly. Han groaned and rolled his eyes.

"That kriffin' little-" Han began, but Finn's face fell and his laughter had died.  
  
"Han. We're here because- it's about Poe. Ren has him."

Han's face fell as did Kaia's. The cockpit burst into a palpable silence. Rey appeared in the entryway of the cockpit, a large smile plastered on her face, but the moment she felt and saw the emotions occurring her face fell and she immediately knew what had transpired.

Han had always had a soft spot for Dameron- he was practically a clone of himself, and deep down he knew that that's why Leia had taken such a liking to the pilot. He'd been a good kid, and his parents had been good people. Most importantly, Poe had been Ben's best friend growing up. Han could never relate to Ben- not as much as Luke could. Even though his son had been far too sullen and strange and quiet for his liking he hadn't wanted him to go with Luke for so long. He was frightened- he had not had enough time to bond with his son, to really get to know him.

In the end, it was his fault.

Poe reminded him of Ben. That's why he liked him so much. Ben, not Kylo Ren.

Perhaps he'd come back to the Resistance for a bit after all.


	20. Not Alike

He was still there.

But he was fading, fast.

There was nothing Kaia wanted more than to rescue Poe from his predicament, bring him back to safety at the Resistance, back to a place where she could finally protect him properly now that she had a proper weapon. She was afraid. Ren would sense them the moment they stepped foot on that ship between the presences of Rey and Han Solo. She was fortunate enough to have trained underneath one of the greatest Jedi in the order but even then, she wasn't sure that she had what it took to face down a Sith, a particularly powerful one at that. She could not kill him, either. Not yet. It wasn't the time, and based on that information she'd gathered about Ben Solo… he wasn't gone. Not quite yet.

It was fortunate that Han had known the coordinates of the First Order ship the _Finalizer_ so he knew what areas of space to stay out of. There was no way to know for sure if that's where Poe was being held but Han, Finn, and Rey all insisted that that's exactly where he would be kept. Underneath the grasp of Hux and Ren. Finn did not mention a word of it to Kaia but he was concerned as to what was happening to his friend. He'd seen the way prisoners who meant nothing were treated by Hux and those under his command; he couldn't imagine what they'd do to a commander who was Hux's sworn enemy. They were going to save him but in what state would the commander be returning in?

Now, they stared upon the _Resurgent-_ class Star Destroyer with strong motives but no plan. "I've done a lot stupider with a lot less," Han said to them. They had been attempting to come up with _some_ sort of plan but with both Rey and Kaia there, nothing they had talked about would work. Ren would know they were there no matter how hard they tried to find their signatures.

It was impossible to hide from Rey and Ben's connection.

"We’re gonna have just about the entire ship on our tail," Finn told them as they all stared upon the ship that Han was slowly guiding the _Falcon_ towards. During the trip to the Star Destroyer, Han had been happy to tell Kaia tales upon tales of adventures and mishaps that had all happened aboard the _Millennium Falcon,_ and it gave him a _wonderful_ excuse to gloat about her feats and abilities. She half-heartedly listened with a smile on her face. Ordinarily she'd be enthralled by such history but she could only focus on Poe. Perhaps he was dead and Ren was feigning his life force to draw Rey and Kaia in. Perhaps he was so brainwashed by the First Order he'd be feral in the Resistance's presence. Perhaps… there were too many scenarios running through her head and so she shook them off and began to focus on what was important, on the immediate action. "But we have Rey and Kaia."

"You talk about them like they're some kind of weapon," Han gruffly responded. Finn opened his mouth and began to stutter while Rey chuckled.

"Used to it," Kaia said softly.

"Hey, kid. You never got around to telling me who you are," Han asked, turning around to face Kaia. Finn and Rey both fell silent and turned to look at their friend.

"A memory. Somebody from the past."

"No, really, who are you? I don't wanna go into here not knowing about ya and who you are and _why you have that funny lookin' light-saber."_

Kaia sighed. "An ex-Jedi who got caught up in the wrong side of bounty hunting fifty years ago, frozen in carbon. Let's just say it was fate that brought Poe to Lallani's place and accidentally helped me escape."

Han's mind was reeling and he had to physically stop his jaw from dropping- _a Jedi frozen in carbon for fifty years_? Oh, where had she been all of this time? _Why couldn't she have been there to help Luke?_ No. Han had to shove those thoughts out of his head. What had happened to Ben was over with, and it was his, Leia, and Luke's fault. He'd just been a boy, so scared and frightened and confused and the trio had been fighting over him too much to realize that Snoke was taking advantage of the young Jedi.

But now, they stood a chance. A real Jedi.

"Huh." He said, nodding and turning back around. Playing it cool, in typical Han style. "The carbon sucks, doesn't it?"

* * *

Any talks of a plan had devolved and shattered the moment the First Order breached their comms system and began to demand that the _Falcon_ identify themselves. Han had been so miffed that the correspondent talking to them hadn't immediately recognized his flagship that he'd sent the ship full throttle into the landing bay, knocking TIE fighters aside and leaving deep scars in the floor of the bay. When the ship came to an absolute rough landing, the five of them sat there in shock for just a few moments before Kaia leapt out of her seat. "We need to go before we're surrounded," she called out, smoothly making her way through the Falcon. Rey was quick to follow and Chewie pulled Han out of his seat to follow Finn out of the entryway. There was no time to think, not with what Han had just pulled. They had to _go._

Upon leaving the _Falcon_ several Stormtroopers had begun to shoot at them but Kaia and Rey easily deflected the shots directly back at those who had shot them, knocking them over and emptying the hangar of any Stormtroopers. "Where are the prison cells, kid?" Han shouted forward to Finn. Before Finn could answer, Kaia snapped her head to the side towards one of the exits of the hangar into the bowels of the ship.

"There," she said, putting her saber at her side and beginning to sprint towards the door. While they ran, Kaia and Rey occasionally deflected some blaster bolts from the first guards who'd showed up while Chewie consistently knocked them out with the bowcaster, Han and Finn each getting a few good shots of their own in with their own blasters. Her senses were heightened, adrenalin was rushing through her- she had not done something like this since she was with the Jedi so she found it slightly difficult to remain calm and focused on the Force but she forced herself to do it anyways, for Poe.

Eventually they reached the door which was propped open from the fallen body of Stormtroopers, leaving a gap just large enough for them to squeeze through. They began to squeeze through the gap one by one, immediately met by Stormtroopers on the other side that Kaia, in a last minute attempt, threw her saber at and recalled it to her hand with the Force. As they fell to the floor she turned to the rest squeezing through the door, Chewie having the most difficult time but managing to get his entire body through. "Follow my lead, stay together _, don't get separated_ ," Kaia ordered. Ordinarily Han would've argued with himself not being in the lead but the tone in her voice was something he'd never heard before and something he did not want to argue with. "Rey… if you _sense him_ , _you_ must tell me," Kaia said with urgency in her voice. Rey nodded. "Ready?"

All four of them nodded.

"Let's go kick some ass and rescue Poe."

The next ten minutes were full of blaster shots and a flurry of flashes of light as Rey and Kaia worked with the Force through their lightsabers to deflect shots and carve through the white armor of the Stormtroopers. She followed her intuition through the ship, feeling Poe's fading life force even from far away, with the guidance of Finn. A few times she would've taken them through a dead end had Finn not known the layout of the ship, thankfully. It still felt strange, knowing the Stormtroopers predecessors were clones. The clones she'd been so close with, shared so many victories and losses with… when she'd seen them turn on innocents under the hand of the Empire, do things that they would've never otherwise done, it broke her inside. Utterly destroyed her. And now, she was here slaying people in armor so similar to the good men she used to know. She knew they weren't clones, and she knew that Stormtroopers had done terrible thing but with every white piece of armor her saber touched she could not help but feel a slight bit of remorse.

There'd been no sign of Ren, yet. Kaia had a sinking feeling he'd perhaps be awaiting them with Poe, demanding a fight over the captured commander. She'd yet to see the one they called Hux, either. He was Poe's target, anyways. She remembered the hatred and disdain Poe had felt for the general and wanted to give Poe the luxury of bringing him down. It began to worry her slightly that they had not seen signs of the Sith quite yet and Kaia began to wonder if he was even on the ship- perhaps they'd come at a fortunate time where he was on a mission doing something-

Rey knew better. Ren was here. She just did not know where.

They finally reached the command center of the prison cells and after wiping the room clean of guards and sealing the door shut, Finn ran up to the control panel and began to access all sorts of files and codes that would be needed. Han bent over, hands on his knees as he caught his breath. "You know, that was a bit easier when I was your age," Han breathed. Chewie chuckled quietly and Rey helped Finn with her brows furrowed. Kaia stood by door that Finn was attempting to open, tapping her foot anxiously with her saber at her side. _She just wanted to get through,_ to see if Poe was alright, if he was actually _alive._

He'd been gone for too long, over a week now, and from what she'd heard-

The door slid open, and Kaia instinctively raised her saber in front of her, prepared for a barrage of blaster fire.

To her surprise, there were no guards on the other side. Just rows and rows of prison cells with shouting prisoners, banging against the glass walls of their prisons having heard the commotion in the control center.

Without waiting for the others to catch up Kaia began to run through the center of the prison cells- he was at the end, behind a final blast door. A cell made only for the most important prisoners. She ignored the cries for help and the jeers from the prisoners on either side of the hallway, the Force guiding her at a full sprint towards the blast doors- Poe was behind there. She could feel it.

She carved through the keypad of the blast doors with her saber, the door opening while sparks flew from what she'd just carved through.

Any remorse she had felt for taking the lives of so many Stormtroopers immediately faded away and twisted into anger. An anger that flooded her vision, a rage that nearly made her nearly lose control when she saw Poe in such a horrible condition laying on the floor of the cell. Nearly all rational thought left her- this is why she'd left the Jedi. The darkness threading through her veins was far too tantalizing to turn away, the need for _revenge,_ for _justice_ for what they'd done to Poe-

Kaia fell to her knees at Poe's side, grabbing his body and turning him over- he woke with a startled jump from his sleep, attempting to crawl backwards while he blinked sleep away from his eyes, whimpering for Kaia to please stop. It was pathetic, and it only enraged Kaia further. _I'm going to kill whoever was responsible for this._ She did not care. It must happen. The familiar tendrils of the dark side began to seep into her thoughts, taint them, beg for revenge against the captors of Poe, beg for Kaia's hands to murder somebody.

She was going to slaughter everybody responsible for this.

"Poe, it's me. Poe, you're going to be alright. We're going to get you out of here," Kaia murmured, pulling Poe onto her lap and running his fingers through his hair, only to find it impossible from the amount of matting done by blood and dirt. He was shivering viciously and stopped trying to run when he recognized the sound of Kaia's voice- his eyes were swollen and crusted shut and he could barely even see her, but he knew it was her. He knew from the softness in her voice, the tenderness of her touch, the scent of her.

"Oh stars," Rey murmured from the doorway when her and the others had caught up to Kaia. The sight of Poe, bloodied and shivering, laying on the floor of the cell with his head in Kaia's lap. This is what the First Order had reduced a commander of the Resistance down to.  
  
There was shouting in the distance and alarms began to blare all around them. Kaia turned to face the others- "We need to get him out of here. Chewie- can you take care of it?"

The wookie grumbled softly and knelt down on one knee next to the pilot. Before he was to handle Poe he took the bowcaster off of his body and handed it up to Han, who stared at the weapon with a gleam in his eyes. He'd always loved handling the wookie's weapon and found that there wasn't anything else out there in the galaxy that matched its intensity.

The wookie gently scooped his arms underneath the man's shoulders and the crook of his knees. Poe's head instinctively ducked deep into the wookie's chest and Chewie held Poe protectively against his body. It brought tears to Rey and Kaia's eyes to see Poe in the state he was in, barely conscious and barely able to recognize those around him, only knowing he was safe.

She did not expect it to be this horrible. Kaia unwrapped her jacket- _Poe's_ jacket- from around her shoulders and draped it over the man, concealing all but his face which was mostly tucked into the thick fur of the wookie's chest.

"I'll take the lead," Kaia said. The tone in her voice was stone cold and there was a faraway look in her eyes that frightened Rey- she could feel the rage emanating from Kaia, the utter anger and it _scared_ her. She knew Ren and she believed that there was good in him but she also knew that he'd take advantage of that anger if they came across him which they most certainly would.

"Kaia-" Rey said, trying to stop her but Kaia shook her head.

"Follow my lead."

There was not going to be any stopping her.

As they made their way back through the hallway full of prison cells Kaia began to slash her saber furiously at the control panel of every cell and release every single prisoner in the ship. She knew they stood no chance of escape but she wanted to do whatever she could to inconvenience those who had brought harm to Poe.

There were Stormtroopers to greet them outside of the control room of the prison and Kaia had sliced through them effortlessly, strangely calm and smooth. The rage helped her focus, turned their vision red.

Behind her, Rey cleaned up whatever Kaia had left behind, the Stormtroopers she'd missed but those were few and far between. Han and Finn brought up the rear, sandwiching Chewie and Poe in the center of the group. They were moving faster through the halls now than they had been on the way there, Kaia invigorated with a new sense of anger and justice while Rey desperately tried to keep up with Kaia and sense what she was feeling. If they were to encounter Ren, Rey needed to be there. She was afraid of what would happen if she wasn't.

Finn and Han passed by the countless bodies of the mutilated Stormtroopers, glancing at each other occasionally because of the carnage Kaia was leaving behind. The style was entirely different than it had been before- these marks were of anger, of intent to murder. Before, she'd fought only to protect them, to get to Poe. Now… they were just frightened.

"We're getting close to the hangar," Finn called up to Kaia and Rey who simply grunted while they dispatched another small squad of 'Troopers.

"Chewie, you doing alright?" Han called up to the furry creature. Chewie responded with a yes and proceeded to tuck Poe further into his body to shield him from as much as possible as they entered the main doors to the hangar.

Kaia continued to push forwards towards the doors and Rey was quick to follow but she skidded to a stop, eyes growing wide. She had sensed it, _sensed_ him lying in wait in front of his father's ship but it was far too late. Rey should've seen this coming, she should've known _, she needed to be the first face that Ren saw-_ She held up her hand to stop Kaia and shouted a loud "NO!" that was muted through the blood and fury rushing through Kaia's ears but it did not matter, Kaia had already gone too close to the door and it slid open, revealing the hangar-

And the masked, black-cloaked figure standing in front of a squadron of Stormtroopers, blocking the way to the _Falcon._

Kaia stopped and her heart nearly leapt out of her chest.

It was Ren. She did not need to be told that to recognize the darkness coming from him. The anger, the rage, the confusion, the sadness- he was so _conflicted,_ Rey was right. He was stuck in the bottomless pit of the dark side but there was something hanging down, prepared to pull him up from the void but he did not know if he should accept it or not- she sensed an intense power and rage that she had never felt before.

It frightened her.

She'd heard tales of the Sith before, of the mountain of darkness they appeared as in the Force but standing here with one in front of her… none of her training had prepared her for this.

He was just as powerful as Rey but in the most twisted and horrible way possible. Where Rey was a beacon in the darkness he was just a void that threatened to destroy everything in its vicinity-

"The Jedi I've heard so much about." His voice rang out through the stillness of the hangar. Rey stepped forward next to Kaia but Kaia shook her head and turned to look. _Get them back to the ship._ Rey nodded and turned to linger near Chewie and the rest of them, snaking around behind Kaia and making for the ship. Stormtroopers moved to defy them and Han, Finn, and Rey made a triangle around Chewie with Rey at the lead when blaster fire began and they cut their way through the crowd towards the ship. Ren focused his attention on Kaia. His hand was settled on the silver hilt of his saber but he had not yet drawn it. Kaia's was at her side, ready to move in a moment's notice.

"And a runaway Skywalker. I've heard about you, too," Kaia smoothly responded.

"Oh, so what lies have they been feeding you, then?" Ren asked in amusement. "Did they tell you how they tried to kill me? How they abandoned me and left me for dead?"

"You did that to yourself. They love you. They always will, Ben."

She could see the man's hand visibly tighten around the hilt of his saber and in the blink of an eye he drew it from his belt. It emerged in a fury of cracks as the red light released itself from the metal prison, crackling loudly and sparking in a way that a saber shouldn't. "Ben is dead. I killed him, and I'll kill you too."

Kaia didn't answer and simply tightened her grip on the hilt of her saber. _He_ was responsible for what had happened to Poe. He'd allowed this to happen.  
  
A muffled chuckle emerged from underneath Ren's helmet. "The dark side. Don't worry, I feel it too. Come on; strike me. I know you want to."

"Stop it," she murmured under her breath knowing full well that Ren could hear.

"She's leading you astray. Rey. You and I… we're not much different than you'd think. I can feel that just standing here, from what I've seen in the pilot's mind," Ren smoothly said.

He wasn't right, he couldn't be. They were nothing alike.  
  
"I know you're considering the strength of the dark side. You have been, for a while now. You've seen what it can do. You've felt it."

"I'm giving you one last warning," Kaia calmly said, relaxing her muscles and connecting with the Force to prepare for the inevitable battle.

"Are you going to murder me like my grandfather murdered your precious Jedi friends?"

Infuriated by his comment that had crossed every boundary Kaia had had, she leapt forward with her saber high above her head and Ren fell into a position with his knees bent, saber held protectively in front of him. Eternities passed while Kaia was in the air, poised to strike the Sith. So this is what it had come to. Deep down, within the core of her being, Kaia was frightened. Truth be told she'd never faced down a Sith before and she had not fought in lethal combat for quite some time now.

But visions of Poe curled into a ball on the floor flashed through her head and it fueled her with all of the inspiration and passion she needed.

The cyan blade met the crimson and all hell broke loose. The two fought with a fast intensity but strangely, neither made any seriously lethal moves towards each other- it was a dance of sorts, poking and prodding at the other's weakness, testing their defenses and offenses, their style and method of attack. Ren had never fought against any with such structured movements before- Luke had learned from Yoda but even then, the style of combat that Luke had taught his pupils had been a collage of the old Jedi ways. Kaia fought with structure, with smooth and fluid motions refined from years and years of training since she'd been a young child- Kaia had never faced anybody nearly so strong before, not to mention a Sith. A darkside user. He was so much more utterly powerful as frightened as she was to admit but she remained quick on her feat, much smaller and lighter than her opponent.

At one point they had brought their blades together with such force that they both staggered backwards a few feet and hunched over, catching their breath. Kaia held her saber out in front of her defensively but Ren held his loosely in front of him with little apprehension or fear. In fact, his brown eyes stared curiously at Kaia and she felt enraged just seeing how nonchalantly he was treating this battle. "Vapaad? There's more dark side in you than you'd like to think," Ren smoothly said. Kaia shook her head.  
  
"A small dose is healthy."

"That's what you'd think." Ren glanced over to Rey, Finn, Han, and Chewie at the base of the boarding ramp of the Falcon, scurrying up the metal while Rey deflected blaster shots and focused all of her energy and attention on protecting her friends. Ren looked back to Kaia, who was confused why he did not continue to strike forward and attack. "You have much to think about. The dark side, your allegiances. Luke Skywalker is not who you think he is."

"What are you saying?" Kaia breathed. Ben pursed his lips and lowered his saber to his side. Kaia's face fell into a look of disbelief- he was standing down. But why?

"Reflect deep within yourself, Jedi. You want them gone just as much as I do. Ask yourself why. Feel the darkness you _know_ is within you. The darkness within Rey. I can see it in you as I see it in her. In time, that will become obvious."

"I- _never._ The dark side corrupts the Force and twists it into something that it is not meant to be."  
  
Ren chuckled.

"Prove it." She furrowed her brows in a moment of confusion, frowning as he lowered his saber and did not pursue another attack on her. Still defensively holding her cyan blade in front of her she watched as Ren raised his hand… towards her. Unable to defend herself against the Force attack she was undoubtedly about to go through she closed her eyes and reached out to the Force for help but it was too late, he'd reached her mind.

_She saw all she needed to know. The needles of pain threading through Poe's skin and consciousness while Kylo Ren's fist broke through the defenses of his mind, traversing his memories and his knowledge until he took what he needed. Men dressed in all black, not too dissimilar from Ren, landing blow upon blow to try to get him to break, to crack. Stormtroopers beating him to unconsciousness under the watchful eye of Hux-_

When her eyes opened, Ren could see a darkness in them he hadn't before. A small smile grew on his face underneath his mask. He'd succeeded in showing Kaia what had happened to commander Dameron under the First Order's control. When he saw the rage in her eyes, saw the red in her eyes, he knew he'd done what he'd wanted. He'd pushed her teetering off of the edge of the dark side that he felt running so rampantly in her and watched as her head snapped to Hux who had just emerged into the hangar from a doorway, followed by the same squadron of Stormtroopers that had abused Poe with delight-

Kaia did not even have to raise her hand to do what she wanted done. She glared at Hux and the squadron with flaming eyes and everybody fell still for a few moments in confusion- she narrowed her eyes and one by one, the Stormtroopers began to fall to the ground, some clutching their stomachs, some clutching their heads, some clutching their limbs. Hux seemed to suffer the worst of all, yelping as he fell to the ground and began to roll around in throes of pain. Ren chuckled softly as the invisible poison spread through their veins. "I knew you had it in you."

The sound of his metallic voice snapped Kaia out of her rage and she turned back to Ren, eyes growing wide when she realized what she'd done- she'd afflicted Force Affliction on those troops, a form of Force Plague only accessible by the path of the dark side- she'd fallen. Even if only for a few moments, she'd let herself become something she had never intended to be. Eyes continuing to widen her saber involuntarily fell to her side and she began to step backwards from Ren in horror.

"In time, you'll see," he calmly said to her. Shaking her head she turned around and made for the _Falcon,_ casting blaster bolts aside with the combination of the Force and her saber. Ren held up his hand and ordered the Stormtroopers to stop aiming for her. He'd gotten what he wanted. He'd tested the waters of the dark side. When he tore the story of Kaia from Poe's mind he realized that she wasn't just an ex-Jedi but a fallen Jedi- no matter how hard she tried to convince herself, she didn't leave the Jedi to serve the light side. She'd left the Jedi because she felt the pull of the dark side and she was _scared-_ the Jedi council in her time didn't know how to healthily deal with those fears. That much was obvious with Anakin Skywalker.

But Kylo Ren did. And he would help her.

* * *

"Poe?? POE??" Finn said, crouching down to Poe in the bottom bunk that Chewie had deposited him in. The pilot did not move in the bunk and when Finn's hand touched him all he could do was let out a groan. Han had narrowly managed to escape the tractor beam of the Star Destroyer and just barely managed to not get decimated into a burst of flames with the help of Rey manning the guns of the ship. Rey had a feeling that Ren had ordered non-lethal shots from the TIE fighters following them but nonetheless, it was a struggle to escape. Han's piloting abilities had been put to the test but he knew Ren had allowed them to escape mostly unscathed. He just didn't know why.

Rey was crouched next to Finn, staring over the pilot hesitantly. As Kaia approached in a hurry, her stomach began to churn. She should've been there to protect him, this never should have happened. His form, covered only in thin black clothing provided by the Resistance, was shivering underneath the cover of his jacket that Kaia had draped over him and the thin blanket of the bunk. His face was hardly recognizable between the yellow and black bruises and the crusted blood on his face, hiding the gashes that Stormtroopers and Knights of Ren had left- Kaia didn't even want to imagine the injuries hiding underneath the thin cloth covering his body and she fell to his side. Rey departed to find whatever medical supplies Han had scattered throughout the ship while Kaia leaned over the bed and took his hand in between hers. Finn looked at Kaia expectantly, hoping and praying to the Force the she could do something, that she could help him. Kaia closed her eyes and squeezed Poe's hand in between hers.

She could not Force heal but she could ease the pain of his injuries, lull him into a state of rest until Rey was able to find things to patch him up.

But she had gone too far. The dark side that she had allowed to flood into her senses on the _Finalizer_ had tainted her abilities and Poe's memories rushed into her head and all she could feel was pain, a burning pain all throughout her body, bruises and scars and-

When Kaia opened her eyes, Poe had stopped shivering and the soft grunts of pain had ceased. But she had begun to shake out of pure _anger_ \- she snapped up into a standing position from where she'd been and marched towards the cockpit where Chewie and Han were assessing the damage done to the ship while the white streaks of the hyperlane passed by outside. Han, distracted by Kaia's rather sudden appearance, looked away from the diagnostics datapad and raised an eyebrow.

"Turn the ship around," she demanded, her tone cold and her demeanor unrelenting.

"Are you crazy?" Han replied.

"Han, turn the ship around. Now."

"What are you talking about?" Han asked incredulously. Chewie roared indignantly beside Han.

Rey, who'd heard the commotion in the cockpit, deposited the supplies she'd gathered next to Finn who began to administer bacta shots and salve onto Poe's wounds. She appeared into the entryway of the cockpit just in time to hear Kaia's plan to turn the ship around and murder General Ren and General Hux were they stood.  
  
"...not turning around! There's gonna be another time, I promise! But if you really care for your pretty little friend out there-" Han cut short when he saw Rey's figure appear behind Kaia. Kaia whipped around and faced Rey and what Rey saw etched into her features terrified her, quite frankly. She saw an unbridled rage that seemed entirely uncharacteristic for the girl and she reached out and touched Kaia's shoulder. Kaia did not shy away from the touch but she stared warily at Rey.  
  
"Kaia. Poe needs us. I promise you that I want to avenge this but now's not the time," she softly said to Kaia.  
  
When Han had said it, it had simply enraged her further. When Rey had said it, the touch on her shoulder had sent soothing streams of light back into her, bringing clarity into her thoughts and allowing her to see the situation. Kaia closed her eyes and allowed Rey's energy to calm her, to clear her mind, to help the anger fade away. Her brightness chased the shadows from the Force flowing in Kaia's body and helped her heal.

When Kaia opened her eyes, she could only think of one thing.

 _Poe._ He needed her. He needed her more than anything to even think about beginning to heal from this.

* * *

The _Finalizer_ had been closer to the Resistance than any of them had realized and so it only took a little over a day to venture back to D'Qar. On the bright side of things, not only had they recovered the commander but they'd found the relative location of the _Finalizer_ for the time being.

Kaia had not left Poe's side.

While Rey and Han worked with Chewie and Han's astromech droid to make vital repairs on the ship that the First Order had left, Finn had scoured over datapads and communicated with Resistance intelligence. Kaia had stationed herself in a chair at the side of Poe's bunk and had not broken concentration from him for the entirety of the ride. They had used up most of Han's supplies, much to Han's dismay, which had managed to heal his injuries well enough for them to transport him back to the Resistance medics.

It had not stopped Poe from waking up occasionally in throes of pain, moaning in pain that even the bacta could not take away and so Kaia would place her palm on his cheek, easing him back into a painless state of sleep. She'd cleaned up his face as much as possible, wiping away the old and crusted blood from with a damp towel, gingerly peeling back the bandages and wiping away the mixture of blood and pus seeping from his wounds.

It was killing her to see him this way. The confident and full-of-himself pilot bloodied and cowering in the bed, unable to be conscious without pain and fear flooding his body. And this was not the last of it. After his wounds were sealed shut and limbs snapped back into place he would still be scarred. The mental pain of what had happened to him would likely never fade, Kaia knew that well. The anguish Tallissan's death and the loss of _the Nightfall_ would cause would be unbearable for him on top of all the other demons he'd been battling.  
  
Kaia had to be there for him.  
  
And she had to find Luke. Ren needed to be stopped, the First Order needed to be destroyed.

And Poe had to heal.

The entirety of the ride Kaia was constantly reminded of what she'd done on the Star Destroyer. She'd employed a Dark side technique, a _Sith_ technique she'd learned when she had exiled herself from the Jedi- she never thought she would employ it. But she had, and it had been out of pure rage. Hux nor his troopers were directly threatening any lives, they had done her no immediate harm. All it had taken was Ren showing her one instance of Poe being _beaten_ and it had sent her into a fit of fury- she could never allow this to happen again. Ren was wrong. She would not fall. They were _nothing_ alike.


	21. Stay

Her stomach heaved and she thought she was going to be sick as she watched Resistance medics hurried Poe to the infirmary on the back of a ground transport. Though the sun had set and it was nighttime on D'Qar the base was alive and swarming with people excited by the return of their commander.

Han stood apprehensively at the base of the Falcon's ramp, staring wistfully over the chaos going on outside of the hangar due to the sight of the _Falcon._ He'd been to D'Qar once before, years prior when he'd helped Leia settle the Resistance down into the infant base after their previous one had been compromised. He'd turned his back on the place and never returned but as always, he'd always had a habit of being drawn into fights that he wanted no part of.

He hadn't seen Leia in so long.

How could he? After everything that had happened… " _…Han."_ The sound of Rey's voice drew Han out of his trance and he turned his head to see the girl standing next to him. "Han. Finn and Chewie and I are taking the _Falcon_ to find BB-8. Hopefully he's still on Jakku, but we need to go now. Are you going to stay here?"

Han, mind still reeling from the emotions and chaos surrounding him, shook his head. He didn't know why he told her no and he did not know why he thought it wise to stay with the Resistance. Perhaps it was the soft spot he had for Dameron, or maybe he felt a sense of duty to stay with the Resistance and point them in the right direction to make amends for leading his son so astray, or maybe… it was the woman standing at the entrance of the base, a forlorn look on her face as she looked through the crowd at Han. For a few moments as people walked by he could've sworn he say the young face of the princess as he'd first met her, so naïve and stubborn and head-strong… all the reasons he'd fallen in love with her.

He couldn't leave her. Not when he hadn't seen her in so long. He told himself that he was staying because she needed him but in reality, it was him who needed her. He was just never going to be able to admit that to himself.

His eyes glanced over to the girl, Kaia, watching as they wheeled Poe away to the infirmary. He was curious about her, her origins, what she knew. If she was truly a member of the Jedi Order as she claimed… perhaps she'd be able to bring Ben back. Bring Luke back, even. Guide Rey in the right direction, ease the burden of training Rey from Leia's shoulders. 

The High Command was convening just behind Leia as they watched one of their own, bloodied and battered but alive, wheeled away. Han took a deep breath, and began to walk through the crowd towards Leia.

* * *

Poe was safe. Her fight was over, for now. She'd faced down the Sith and survived, gotten a glimpse into his techniques, his mind. Still, his words lingered witin her mind.

_"You and I… we're not much different than you'd think."_

It could not be true- the only thing that Kaia had in common with Kylo Ren was the fact that they'd abandoned the Jedi but even that was so complex, so different- Ren wanted to sink into the power and seduction of the dark side. Kaia wanted to preserve the Force and practice the Force and only the Force- not the light side, not the dark side. She wanted to rid the corruption of the Force within her and so she'd left- it had been a good thing.

It was not the same.

Still… it bothered her. What she'd done couldn't leave her mind. She was well aware that Ren was playing off of her fears, of her insecurities as Sith tended to do. And she knew his words would linger for a while and she would pick them apart and wonder what they meant. Perhaps Rey would have more insight into Ren's thoughts because of the connection.

She tossed in her bed, facing her room as the moonlight streamed in through the window. She had been given a small bunk in one of the dormitories of the Resistance base. Soft snores surrounded her from the Resistance members sleeping, some lights on as a fair few read in the dark, whispers from dark corners from loved ones bidding each other farewell before escaping to sleep. Even with the Force Kaia could not slow her mind enough to sleep. Deep down, she knew it was because she did not want to sleep. Something within her wanted to check on Poe. To be by his side while he healed.

With a sigh she slipped her legs off of the side of the bunk, feeling the chill of the air hit her arms. She missed the jacket and supposed that soon enough she'd have to find clothes of her own instead of borrowing Poe's from the drawers of his room. She hoped the medics had not gotten rid of the jacket. For some odd reason she'd grown attached to it and she would've liked to have it back.

Making her way silently through the bunks nobody paid much mind to her. Not when they couldn't see her face in the dark of the room. The doors whirred open for her and she began to make her way through the brightly lit hallways of the base. She was not too incredibly familiar with the layout of the Resistance base but she'd gotten a general idea of where everything was at. She'd never been inside of the infirmary before but she'd gotten a few glimpses of the inside while passing by with Rey and Finn and Poe, always hoping she'd never end up in there. She would. She always did, eventually. Harm always came to those who wanted to help the most, that she'd come to know rather well.

The medbay was quiet, interrupted only by the hushed voices of the doctors and the nurses, few and far between due to the late hour, and the quiet beeps of various machines and bacta tanks in use. Nobody questioned her as she silently made her way through the various rooms partitioned off by beige cloth, seeking out Poe and wherever he was being kept- she was a bit wary to learn of his condition as to not ignite a new anger within her but for the time being there was nothing she could do about it, and she knew that that fact would keep her calm. Besides, Poe needed her for comfort now. Not revenge. Not yet.

_There._

Towards the end was a larger room cut out for the commander, surrounded by cloth on all three sides, entirely private and secluded from the rest of the medbay. She could sense him behind there. Nobody else, though, which she supposed surprised her for a commander. It made her slightly sad, even, that he was alone. Not waiting for one of the medics to give her permission she gently drew the cloth aside and passed through to the other side, sliding it back into place before turning around to look at Poe.

_Oh, Poe._

She knew that being a commander would give him higher priority and access to higher grade materials but even then, she was surprised as to how much better he looked now than he had when they'd rescued him. His eyes, which had been swollen shut, were now back to their normal state aside from being surrounded by bruises that not even bacta could fix. A majority of his cuts and scrapes were now gone with miniscule pink scars left as a reminder as to what had happened. There were numerous tubes feeding into his arms, pumping various liquids and medicines into his body that he likely sorely needed. Poe had only been a prisoner for a little over a week but the lack of food was incredibly obvious with the gaunt look in his face and the weakness he had had. Kaia moved to his side and grabbed his hand. It lacked the warmth it typically did and instead just felt cold and clammy in her grasp. She sighed; it wasn't directly her fault but in a way, she'd never forgive herself for not getting to him sooner. She should've went sooner.

She looked over him. Him, the pilot who'd rescued her from her prison. She doubted she would've ever gotten out otherwise. Over time, Lallani would've died or been killed by some other vagrant, the building crumbled, her and her fellow prisoners lying forgotten in time underneath the rock, becoming a part of the soil itself. Kaia knew the Force and she knew that there was no such thing as a coincidence, no matter how small. The Force drove the gears of time and influenced all those who lived. Poe Dameron was meant to find her and she had not yet begun to understand why.

In a different lifetime, it would've been them.

Perhaps… perhaps the Force was trying to tell her something. Perhaps an attachment would not be fatal. Perhaps the Force was trying to tell her that she was capable of navigating those waters without losing herself in the depths. Still, she could not shake the voice of Obi-wan from her head explaining why Jedi could not fall in love.

But she wasn't a Jedi, wasn't she?

And as morbid as it was, she thought to herself how the Jedi had condemned themselves because of their faults, their blindness.

Kaia was torn from her thoughts at the sound of the curtain opening and her head snapped to the figure coming through- a figure she recognized as Doctor Kalonia, a figure close to Leia and the rest of the High Command. Her muscles relaxed as she watched the doctor come through with curious eyes. "I didn't know Commander Dameron was to have visitors," she said smoothly; there was no conviction in her voice

"Couldn't sleep," Kaia said softly, looking back down to Poe. His face was so peaceful, more peaceful than it had been when they'd first rescued him.

"I'd reckon that friends would help him anyways," the doctor said with a small smile, beginning to look over the monitors and bags of fluids feeding into Poe's body. "He's quite resilient. It wasn't as nearly as bad as it had looked, you know. The bacta did the trick. Aside from the radial break and the calcaneal fracture, he's healed up quite nicely. Fractured and broke some ribs, so he'll have to remain in bed rest for a few days." Kaia looked over the sling Poe's left arm was encased in and the black brace that had been fitted over his right leg- _what had they done that had broken his bones?_

"Thank you for doing everything you could," Kaia politely said. The doctor chuffed and shook her head.

"It's my job," she paused for a moment after completing what she had come into the room for, staring at Kaia. "You're the Jedi, right?"

Kaia looked at the doctor and smiled softly, nodding, while the doctor continued to speak. "Word travels fast 'round here. Don't see many Jedi nowadays, not since…" her voice trailed off.

"I know. And in time, it shall be corrected," Kaia told the doctor. The doctor nodded and got ready to make for another patient before turning back around as though there had been one last thought in her head.

" _Kaia!_ So _you're_ the one he was asking for when we got him out of the bacta tank. Forgot the name, but it just came back to me. Have a good night, Kaia. Keep 'im company, he needs it," the doctor said before turning back around and disappearing behind the white curtain. With furrowed brows, she turned her attention back towards Poe, whose chest was rising and falling oh so peacefully in the clutches of rest. She considered herself closest with Rey and Finn and Poe, and she wasn't sure what it was but she felt a connection with Poe she did not feel the rest of them. One she yearned to explore.

She drew the chair from the opposite side of the bed next to his bed and decided to meditate. Perhaps the strong presence of the Force would do him good. Kaia was still apprehensive to see him conscious as she wasn't sure she wanted to be the one to inform him of the death of Tallissan and the loss of his ships. But it had to be her, she knew that. She kept Poe's hand clasped within hers and closed her eyes, reaching out to the Force to find comfort…

* * *

_"I see, now, the secrets you hold."_

_The voice would not leave her head and Kaia fell to her knees onto a surface she could not see, clawing at her ears to make it stop. It was full of darkness and evil and everything horrible in the galaxy.  
  
"Tell me: do you blame yourself? You should."_

_Red flooded her vision and she fell onto all fours. The torment would not end, no matter how hard she scratched and claws the itch of the voice would remain in her mind. Breathing heavily, a snarl grew on her face as rage flooded her body, anger at what the voice had asked-_

_It was her fault, all of it. If she had tried harder then she could have escaped with Ahsoka, perhaps saved Anakin from such an awful fate, save Obi-wan from living out his life as a hermit in the forgotten shadows of the galaxy. If she had not left maybe they could have defended more of them, escaped with their lives, convinced Anakin to crawl back up from the depths of the dark side, killed him entirely-_

_It was Kaia's fault. All of it. How could she not blame herself? Guilt and fear and anger washed through her body, gripping Kaia with the claws of regret and passion and emotion. She did not care- she had almost allowed the same thing to happen to Poe. She wasn't capable, she was a horrible and worthless Force user, washed up and forgotten-_

_"I can help you."_

_The voice was a thousand whispers now, echoing throughout her mind and her surroundings, repeating itself over and over again._

_"Please," Kaia retched in between breaths. Help. She needed help._

_"Come to me."_

Kaia shot awake but she could not determine if it was her environment or the strange nightmare she had had- all that mattered was that-

Wait, Poe was awake. He looked at her with a drowsy grin. "Aren't you supposed to be the one awake while I'm asleep?" Poe lazily joked. A grin grew on Kaia's face and all of the horrors she had faced in her sleep were entirely forgotten. His hand was still clasped in hers and when her tired mind fully embraced what was happening she stood up from her chair and surrounded Poe with a hug. "You're alright," she breathed in relief. When she pulled away, Poe was still smiling but she could sense the untold horrors lingering behind his eyes.  
  
"It's gonna take a lot more than that to take out Poe Dameron," he cockily said. He grimaced when he'd moved just a tad too far and shifted some of his healing ribs uncomfortably. He was already sick of being cooped up in a hospital bed condemned to bed rest because of the soreness in his chest and it had only been a few minutes that he'd been conscious. He'd been hurt before, but not this bad all at once. Though she'd been smiling her face began to fall and she sank back into the chair and Poe's face grew more serious. "Kaia- thank you. Seriously. I mean, I know I would've done-"

"Poe," Kaia said, squeezing his hand. "You rescued me once. Consider us even."  
  
Poe nodded and sighed, closing his eyes and bringing his hand to his forehead. "Stars- what have I missed? Where's my droid? What happened on Yavin-"

"Slow down, flyboy," Kaia said, squeezing his hand again. "Just got your brain working again- we've got a lot to cover."

"Well, I've got plenty of time," he replied, crossing his arms and leaning back onto the pillow. Kaia rolled her eyes, but down below there was a pit in her stomach of the bad news she'd have to tell him.

* * *

She spent the next hour regaling the stories of what she had unearthed on Yavin-4, the intense training she'd undergone with Rey, the arguments she'd had with Leia and the High Command during the frivolous meetings that had concerned rescuing Poe. The nosy bastard had wanted to hear every crumb of what every member had to say about him and he mentally noted those who'd been adamantly for saving him and those who'd been against. He'd wanted to hear of the mission to locate Poe and how they'd managed to find and corner Han which, according to Poe, Leia had been trying to do for _years._ He didn't say it to Kaia but he was smugly impressed and flattered that they'd gone through such lengths to find him.

The laughs they had while Kaia shared their stories helped keep the horrors in his mind at bay.

Helped from reminding him where the aches and pains and stings every time he moved were from.

The punches, the kicks, the laughter…

Every once in a while in the midst of Kaia talking his eyes would zone out to a place faraway and his smile would fade and she'd have to gently remind him that he was safe now, he was with the Resistance; most importantly, he was with Kaia. She was never going to allow him to slip out of her grasp again.

When he'd first woken up Kaia had assumed he was alright but by the second it was becoming increasingly easier and easier to see that something was missing from the pilot. A piece of his bravery, of his boldness, it was gone. Gone because of the First Order. Gone because of the pieces of lowlife dirt that had hurt him. It was frustrating already as Kaia knew he would never admit he needed help. He'd need it.

He was not okay, and he wasn't sure he ever would be again. Though it wasn't evident yet, what had happened on that ship had destroyed him. He'd already had doubts about himself, about his leadership, but now?

She couldn't tell him about Tallissan. Not yet. Poe had suspected the worst when it had come to his X-wing; he'd watched the First Order destroy it himself. The loss of the _Nightfall_ had been a bit more difficult but no matter what, having Kaia at his side seemed to mitigate the effects of the loss. He could tell there was something she was holding back but… he wasn't sure he could handle much else.

The longer he was conscious, the more he began to lose himself. And he wasn't sure he was going to be able to handle the fallout of this.

Fortunately, with eerily specific timing the curtain opened to provide two more guests: Han and Leia invited themselves into the room and Poe seemed to light up a little more with their entrance. "Hey kid," Han said with a smile on his face. He glanced at Kaia with a confused look on his face but Leia simply gave Kaia a knowing smile. The general knew everything that happened around the Resistance base, after all.

"I'm glad to see you're feeling better, commander," Leia said, taking a spot standing at the side of the bed opposite Kaia.

"Never been better. Where's my droid? Did… I mean… did I at least…" Poe's voice trailed off and he winced slightly, his face falling. He'd failed and allowed himself to be captured but did they at least find what they'd been after, or had the map to Luke Skywalker fallen into enemy clutches? He hated showing weakness in front of everybody but if there was anybody who he didn't mind doing it in front of, it was Leia. She always knew what to say.

"Rey and Finn are with Chewie on the _Falcon_ right now to go get Beebee." Leia paused for a few moments, pursing her lips. "They haven't found Luke yet. It's safe to assume Beebee is pretty good at hide and seek." Poe's face relaxed in relief and his head fell back on the pillow. "We're still working through to see if we can find who planted the tracker on the _Nightfall_. Beebee wasn't able to find a source signal."

Kaia had nearly forgotten about the mysterious tracker that had been placed on the ship back when they'd run into trouble on Ovanis. _Ovanis._ It seemed so long ago, the nights she'd spent with Poe on that ship. When they'd forged the crucial bonds in their friendship that were so hard for Kaia to ignore, to look away from. Where all of these feelings had seemed to stem from.

Poe shifted in the bed and went to swing his legs over but grimaced in pain and closed his eyes, grunting. Leia placed her hand on his arm and shook her head. "Not so fast. You've earned yourself a few days of bed rest." Poe opened his mouth to protest. "And no ands, ifs, or buts about it, Dameron. We need you rested."

Her eyes glanced over to Kaia. Kaia shook her head almost imperceptibly while Poe was still recovering from the pain of the forced movement. She had not told Poe of Tallissan's death yet, and she knew it would be some time before Poe would be capable of bearing such news. He was putting on a façade as he tended to but she could sense the turmoil lying beneath his face. Whatever the First Order had done to him would not fade for some time.

* * *

Not too long after Han and Leia had paid their short visit Poe began to grow drowsy from the stream of medicines that had been flowing into his body. They'd been in conversation for a few hours now and she had no notion of what time it was- she'd come here in the evening and fallen asleep next to his bed. He needed rest, though. Rest and time would be the only way he could heal from this. She had meditated quietly by his side while he kept drifting in and out of a light sleep, occasionally babbling out a few incoherent sentences or jokes while the grasps of sleep took hold.

One certain circumstance where he'd fallen asleep for a particularly long time she'd set her mind to letting him finally rest and she stood up from her seat, turning to make for the curtain- a hand grasped her forearm and she turned to see Poe, chocolate eyes groggy with sleep, staring at her. "Stay," he murmured, voice hoarse from sleep.

She nearly melted when she looked into his eyes. She could not bear leaving him like this, not in his state. He needed her. _He wanted her here._ Kaia supposed she could use that as an excuse to stay. Refusing to let go of her arm until he was sure she was staying Kaia allowed Poe's sleepy grip to guide her back down into her seat and she leaned forward to rest her elbows on the bed, closing her eyes in deep meditation while she helped guide Poe into sleep.


	22. Nightmares

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, a bit of a short chapter but I promise the next one will be longer <3

_Darkness. Screams. The overwhelming stench of blood- drinking it, drowning in it-_

_These were not her nightmares. They were somebody elses._

_The smell of burning flesh, the heat of flames, the searing pain of somebody invading the mind-_

"Please, please stop," Poe whimpered. Kaia picked her head up and stared at Poe. The pilot was twitching in his sleep and shaking his head back and forth. She blinked away the sleep for a few moments but his cries intensified and he began to shout and sob for attackers in his mind to stop, for whatever barrage he was undergoing to end- "Make it stop!"

" _Poe,"_ Kaia murmured, crawling onto the bed next to him. She took both sides of his face in her palms and steadied his face, rubbing circles on his cheeks with her thumbs. "Poe, it's alright. You're safe now. I'm here."

He continued to thrash and shout and so she laid down on the bed next to him, pressing his head against her chest and wrapping her arms around his upper body protectively, sending out soothing energy with the Force as best she could. With her arms wrapped around his body his sobs and shouts nearly immediately ceased and mutated into quiet whimpers of fright and pain. " _Shhhh_ ," she continued to quietly soothe, rubbing his back with her hand while her other hand ran through his matted curls. She made a mental note to seek permission from Doctor Kalonia to bring him to a 'fresher when he was ready. He needed it. Unconsciously the pilot burrowed his head into her body and his movements steadied and the sounds of fright he made grew quieter and quieter- Kaia was easing his mind into rest with the Force. He needed it, he deserved it.

Kaia did not sleep the rest of the night, and Poe did not stir. Once, she caught a glimpse of Doctor Kalonia and a nurse peering in through a crack in the curtains but never invading on the private scene- for that, Kaia was thankful for she knew Poe would've hated anybody to see him in this vulnerable state with the tracks of tears stained onto his cheeks, feeble and weak in her arms.

She fought the nightmares away so that he did not have to.

At some point, after hours and hours spent coddling Poe and ensuring that he was well-rested he'd startled the half-conscious Kaia by jerking out of her arms with a shout, eyes wide open and sweat beading on his forehead- he flew backwards and pressed himself into the bed. Kaia did not recognize these eyes. These were the eyes of prey looking into the face of a predator, the eyes of pure _fear._ They searched wildly throughout the room and as if in self-defense he threw his arms up in front of his face and cowered away from Kaia. Her heart broke. "Poe," she said softly, reaching out and placing her hand on his forearm. "Poe, it's me. You're safe, I promise."

He continued to sit with his arms in front of his face, shaking in fear. How much damage had they really done to him?  
  
She'd been mulling over that sentence in her head when she gently tugged Poe's arms down only to reveal tears streaming down his face. The fear was gone but it was replaced entirely with anguish and pain and Poe was not even trying to hide it. Kaia's face softened and she pulled Poe's head into her chest and he began to sob into her body, reaching his arms around her shoulders and grasping them with the intent of never letting go, holding onto her as if she was the only thing anchoring him from being whisked away by the darkness again.

What evil the First Order possessed that could devolve the once-strong Resistance commander into a sobbing, broken mess Kaia did not know, but she was intent on destroying it. Destroying it all. For him.

"I'll never let them hurt you again," she whispered into his air, lips brushing over his skin. Oh, if only he'd been in the right state of mind he'd be eating this up.

The tears struck hard and fast but the oceans had spilled out of his eyes in a short time. After what was only a few minutes his hard shudders from sobs had turned into soft shakes. The flow of tears had stopped, only leaving salty tracks in their path and he sniffled from the river of snot that had been unleashed from the tears, still buried in Kaia's body. _Stars_ , he was thankful for her right now. Poe never did anything like this- that's why everything always built up within him and turned to poison that bubbled throughout his veins. But this… this helped. The poison was being released the more and more he was with Kaia and so after the tears had faded and the overwhelming anguish had subsided, Kaia noticed that the shakes were no longer of tears or fear, but of… laughter?

"Stars, you got the _best_ blackmail on me now," Poe croaked, voice hoarse from the tears. Kaia furrowed her brows and looked down at Poe who pulled away from her body and stared back up at her. The whites of his eyes were red and bloodshot from the sobbing but the chocolate remained warm and true.

"I would never blackmail you," Kaia said in confusion. Poe bit his bottom lip and chuckled- a relief to both of them.

"Always so serious, huh," Poe said as his face fell. He broke eye contact with Kaia and she could see the gears churning behind his eyes once more, the anguish returning. She did not feel the need to prompt him or ask him what had happened or what they'd done. He found himself beginning to spill to her anyways. "I just… Kaia… they tore me apart. I wasn't even strong, I couldn't handle it. Everything I've been through and I… I just couldn't do it. I wanted to die every second I was in there. Through the beatings and the torture and Ren destroying my mind…" Kaia sensed there were words he was choking on that he could not bring himself to say so she placed the pads of her fingers on his temples gingerly, and she nearly threw up. Through Poe's eyes she cried out in pain, felt the death he had so badly desired while Ren drilled through his mind and the many beatings he'd experienced split her heart into two.

When she removed her hand Poe could not even look her in the eyes. Now she knew what they'd done.

"Oh, Poe," Kaia whispered, eyes tearing up. She pulled Poe close to her body and pressed her nose into his curls, rocking him back and forth in her arms. "Poe, my Poe, I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry. They…. They're going to pay. I'm never letting you out of my sight ever again."

* * *

It seemed so long to Poe since he'd moved of his own accord before- slowly, but surely, Kaia guided him through the medical ward. Dr. Kalonia had granted her permission to take him to his private 'fresher in his quarters, only if to rid him of the stink of dried bacta, blood, and body odor that had been clinging to him for weeks now. Since Poe's breakdown Poe and Kaia had fallen asleep in each other's arms, and for one of the first times since they could both remember, slept with no nightmares, no disruptions. Only with comfort. As they worked their way through the hallways with an unsteady Poe and a patient Kaia, people greeted the commander left and right. Through his pain he'd forgotten all of those who'd been counting on him to return. It only made him feel worse, in a way. The man they looked up so much to had been turned into the mess he was- every time his train of thoughts began to lead down that road he'd glance at Kaia and be reminded of the light. Of what the Resistance was fighting for, of what _he_ was fighting for.

He was eager to cleanse himself of all that had happened. The brace on his leg and his arm still wrapped tightly in a cast and a sling would propose difficulties but even then, he had not seen a refresher in over two weeks. His hair, his poor, poor hair… he could use a clean shave, too. He was slightly miffed when he realized he likely would not be able to do it on his own, and as enticing as it was to bring Kaia into the 'fresher with him, it hurt his honor to think that he couldn't even do this simple task alone

" _Oh, my Poe,"_ Poe mocked in a shrill feminine tone as they entered the door of his quarters. He was surprised to see how tidy his quarters were- it was evident that somebody had cleaned it during his absence though the rustled covers on his bunk signified that somebody had stayed there. Kaia rolled her eyes and huffed. He was mocking her but deep down, the words made him feel a way that he never had before.

"I'll drop you onto the floor and you can crawl to the 'fresher," she shot back. "It's the nicest I'll ever be to you again."

"Are you sure you can stay away from this?" He jokingly said. Kaia shook her head. "Anyways, who's been sleeping in here? You know, trespass of a commander's quarters is an arrestable offense."

"I rented the place out but I couldn't get many credits for it- in fact, I had to _pay_ people to keep your grimy bed warm."

"Wouldn't be the first time someone's been in that bed, and it's not the last," Poe said, winking at Kaia with a smirk plastered onto his face. Kaia lightly punched Poe in the shoulder at the joke- _in another lifetime. Another lifetime she could explore the connotations behind that comment- for now, she was just here to look after his well-being, and nothing more._

Kaia sighed as they entered the 'fresher and Poe breathed a sigh of relief- much to Kaia's dismay he began to fumble around with the loose cloths he'd been wearing in the infirmary and she immediately turned around, crossing her arms and pursing her lips. "Not even a little privacy?"

"Not around you, sweetheart," Poe sarcastically commented.

"Poe," Kaia chided, rolling her eyes. Still, she was glad she was not facing the pilot for her cheeks flushed at the comment. She made her way to the door of the 'fresher and opened it, refusing to turn around and give in to what the pilot wanted. "I'll be outside. If you need help, and _only if you absolutely need it,_ I'll be out here." With that, she stepped out of the doorway and it slid shut behind her before Poe could say anything else. The door was thin, though, and she listened as Poe continued to prepare the refresher and begin to hum a tune to himself. She closed her eyes and sighed. There was so much to unpack here- she'd been shoving the memories of using the dark side ability she'd studied in Lallani's archives but the fact that she had used it out of pure rage and anger incited by Ren… she did not know what Rey had seen in him, and it worried Kaia, to say the least.

Standing outside of the 'fresher door with her arms cross she could not help but look back upon the circumstances they'd been in before, with Poe waiting outside of the door for her. She remembered what he'd done, the way that he'd thought about her… _oh, stars,_ foregoing everything she'd ever known had never seemed more tantalizing.

She had not even noticed that the water had been running when she heard Poe calling her name. Bracing herself she opened the door and saw the blurred figure of Poe on the other side of the entrance to the 'fresher. He was moaning happily in the stream of warm water and she had to shake the noise out of her head and the implications it held- "Yes?" She hesitantly called out.  
  
"Stars, it's been too long- I'm not gonna be able to wash my hair," he called out. His voice seemed downtrodden and though he'd been expecting this, Poe Dameron, Commander of the Resistance, never expected somebody to have to wash his own hair for him. Not until he was already dead. Biting her bottom lip, she retrieved a white towel from the towel rack and approached the 'fresher door.

"I'm going to hand you a towel," she announced. Without a word, the 'fresher door clicked open quietly and a wet hand shoved itself through, fingers outstretched for the towel that Kaia held. Grabbing the towel from Kaia, Poe wrapped it around his waist, situating it nicely though realizing it sat rather low along his waistline. As bold as he was there was a part of him that was embarrassed for some reason- he felt so weak, so exposed. Either way, he was glad it was Kaia here and not anybody else. With a sigh, he pushed the door open to reveal Kaia waiting anxiously with her arms crossed. The water was running down his body but he angled himself so that the water running down his body missed his casted arm in the sling; the doctor had said he could take his brace off just to clean his leg but he could barely put any weight on it, and was instead leaning against the wall of the 'fresher.

"One moment," Kaia said, disappearing for a moment and then returning back to the refresher with one of the metal chairs from Poe's room. She set it in the shower for him and he looked down at it with furrowed brows. "What's this for?"

"It'll make it easier to clean your hair," Kaia told him softly. He pursed his lips, staring at the chair, but then nodded and obliged. As he settled himself in the chair, Kaia reached over to grab the shampoo he had on the shelf in his shower. She poured some into her hand and, hesitating for only a few moments, began to massage the soap through his hair. At first, it had been quite the task to massage through the curls and break up the areas where they were matted and tangled together with blood and dirt. After she broke up the worst of the curls she began to move her hands in a rhythm, massaging Poe's scalp deeply and thoroughly to rid the skin and hair of all of the horrors that had happened. Poe's eyes were closed and his wet skin began to grow cool as Kaia had momentarily turned off the water while she cleaned his curls.

Both of them were hyper aware of the other.

Poe's skin glistened under the water, his muscles carving through his skin, chest rising and falling slowly with his breath.

Poe's skin was tingling at the sensation of Kaia's fingers massaging his scalp, sending butterflies through his stomach and chills down his spine. The fact that he had only a towel between his skin and her eyes was only further tempting and for a moment, just a moment he began to wonder if it would've been better for one of the nurses or even Finn to help him with this-

No. He was glad it was Kaia.

While Kaia continued to shampoo Poe's hair and rinse, followed by a thick layer of conditioner after much begging from Poe, both of them tried desperately hard to remain aloof to the situation. To pretend that the palpable tension between them wasn't real. To remember that because of Kaia had been, because of who she was, nothing would ever work between the two of them. That Poe didn't need distractions right now, didn't need somebody clouding his judgement or holding him back.

Kaia's hand brushed against Poe's cheek and he closed his eyes, sighing. For just a few moment in times, with Poe clean now, cleanly shaved, and looking nearly just as he had before he'd been taken prisoner aside from the cuts on his face, they sat there. Just with each other. Poe leaned his head into her hand slightly and he became painfully aware of his throbbing manhood underneath the towel, threatening to present itself to Kaia at any moment-

"I'll step outside. There's some fresh clothes for you on the sink," Kaia murmured. As soon as she'd come she was gone and even under the steaming water, Poe seemed colder than ever.

* * *

 _"You found the droid."_  
  
"I did. The First Order will be over, soon enough," Rey smoothly responded. She'd been sitting at the table in the Republic cruiser, mindlessly picking at a piece of bread while listening to BB-8 regale his story on Jakku. She was surprised the droid hadn't been picked apart for spare parts but from what it seemed, he'd gotten lost in the middle of the desert for quite some time before they'd found him. Now, Kylo Ren had interrupted her piece and her eyes flickered nervously to the droid.

 _"You doubt my ability to find Skywalker. After all this time, you're not going to help me,"_ the masked figure sighed. From Rey's perspective he was standing on the ship before her and from his, she was sitting down on a smooth black chair across from him. He prodded at the edges of her consciousness as he always did, testing her, to see if she'd give in any way.

She never did. Typically their meetings were calm. Rey and Ren had been getting to know each other more than the other would've liked but it was the only thing that made them feel complete again. Made each other feel whole. Now, though, their connection was filled with tension and the anger Ren was keeping at bay. Rey knew where Skywalker was and she would not give. "I can't help you, not this time. We're going to find Luke and he's going to help the Resistance."

_"You overestimate him. He'll flee once more, back into exile like the coward he is. He cannot confront what he created."_

"He did not create this, Ben," Rey said softly. Ren's fists clenched in anger- he'd been doing well controlling his outbursts in front of Rey though she was often the root of them. Noticing the shift in his emotions, Rey stood and stepped forward towards him, keeping her eyes trained on the metal mask hiding his face. "Ben," she whispered once more, a mere foot away from him. Her brown eyes looked up to the mask, to the man she'd gotten to know so well over time, the man who had dragged her into all of this.

" _You don't know Ben,"_ the figure murmured. He reached his gloved hand up to her cheek, brushing the leather across her face. She closed her eyes and a shaky sigh fell from her lips at the touch. If only they were not separated by light and dark, by good and evil, by right and wrong- they both had hope that one day, the other would see the truth and they could have each other. Nothing could get in their way then.

"Rey?" A voice called out. Far too soon than either of them would've liked, their connection was broken by the sound of Finn's voice and Ren disappeared from the cabin of the ship. Beebee spun around in a circle behind Finn- Rey felt fortunate that Beebee hadn't overheard what had been happening. The astromech droid never could keep his mouth shut. "Gonna stop to fuel up, shouldn't take long. Figured you wouldn't mind looking over the ship- you ok?"

"I'm fine. Yea, that sounds great," Rey said, nodding. There was a clear cloud of distraction clouding her and Finn was worried for his friend. For now, though, they just needed to focus on getting BB-8 back to D'Qar. On finding Luke Skywalker.


	23. Harmony

The rain falling softly from the muted gray skies slid down his face slowly, hiding the tears and salty tracks running down his face. Together, the rain and the tears fell to the ground, watering the soil that now contained the remains of Tallissan Lintra. Of one of the people that Poe had been closest to in the Resistance. His eyes were focused on the small grave marker that had been constructed for her but Kaia could not tell if those brown eyes were looking at the grave or simply trained on the soil while he zoned out into an oblivion. His lips were pursed and his hand was constantly rubbing at his chin as if to rub the pain and anguish away from his brain that would never truly leave. _"Hi, I'm Tallissan Lintra."_ He remembered the first time he'd met her like it was yesterday- they'd been so young, then. So full of hope. Her eyes had been so bright, her voice so bubbly- none of that had ever truly faded, not even with all of the deaths and the losses she'd seen in her time with the Resistance.

"It should've been me," Poe murmured. It was the truth. It should have been Poe. By all rights, the reckless pilot who already had so many deaths under his belt and doubts in his mind should've been the one shot down by the First Order, not Tallissan. This was just another tally on his never-ending list of deaths of those who had trusted him. Kaia reached over and placed her hand on his shoulder, steadying his shaking body in the warm rain of D'Qar. She could not help but feel at fault for her death- now was not the time for Kaia to feel sorry for herself, however. Poe needed her.

"Don’t talk like that," Kaia said softly, squeezing Poe's shoulder.

"She would still be here if it weren't for my orders," he whispered under his breath, not intending for Kaia to hear. She sighed.

"If it wasn't her, it would've been Snap, or Jessika, or Rey and Finn and- she did her job, Poe. She… she died for a worthy cause. For something she believed in. You have to believe that."

Poe grimaced. How was he to admit that saving Rey and Finn and Kaia's life was not something worthy of death? Still, it stung. It always would. He should've been there, at the very least, to give her a fighting chance. More than what she'd had. "How's her sister- how's Kallie?" Poe asked, quickly switching the subject. It was something he didn't wish to discuss further. Up until now, he'd found that pushing the grief and the pain deep down inside of him helped. It compressed itself and added to the ball of misery and grief swirling around his core, growing ever so slowly with the blood of every victim that had fallen under his command.

"She took a leave of absence to return to Pippip-3 to be with their parents. Promises she'll return within a month."

"Come back to another funeral, maybe," Poe murmured, shaking his head. Now Kaia took his shoulder and forced his body at an angle where he'd have to look at her and there was both concern and a certain type of sternness in her face.

"We did not pull you out of that star destroyer for nothing, Commander Dameron. There is time for grief but for pity, for darkness- that is not for you. The Resistance needs you, your people _need you,"_ Kaia lectured. She bit back her cheek. _I need you,_ she so desperately wanted to say, but how could she? She had been entertaining the thoughts for a while now. Resisting the urge while looking over his caramel skin, moistened by the droplets of water that had run down the curves of his muscles had been oh so hard. Obi-wan would have murdered her if he knew what she was thinking right now.  
  
"You're right. I'm sorry. I just… it hurts," Poe moaned. His face contorted into a look of pain and Kaia's face softened. She grabbed the back of his head, curling her fingers around the mop of black hair wet from the rain and pulled his face into the crook of her neck, massaging the curls softly.

"I know. It will. In time, it will fade and the waves will grow fewer and far between, but they'll always come. It will just get easier. I promise," Kaia murmured, her lips brushing over Poe's ear as she comforted him. He breathed her sweet scent in deeply and for just a few moments, the rain disappeared, the biting chill of the rain disappeared, the humid air disappeared- they had each other. They could both feel and hear each other's heartbeats, each other's breaths, feel their skin itch underneath the clothes, too many layers in between them.

They could feel each other, and in that moment, it is all the other wanted. It was all that they needed.

Poe lifted his head from Kaia's neck and stared down ever so slightly into her eyes, the chocolate brown irises softening into something Kaia had never seen before. They were still bloodshot and watery from the tears but there was another light deep within. A spark renewed within the starfighter pilot. His eyes traced over the sharp curves of her cheekbones, the light in her eyes, the strands of hair framing her face and matted down from the rain-water- this is what he wanted. He had known for quite some time now that he yearned for Kaia, for her companionship. This was not grief thinking, nor was it the stubborn impulsivity that his mind typically imposed on him.

This was Poe Dameron, and she was Kaia Wyn.

There was no resistance from either of them when Poe closed the gap between their faces, reaching his neck down to bring his mouth down to the lips he'd dreamed about, the lips he'd craved for so long.

Her taste was sweet and as their lips touched, a fire lit inside both of them. To Poe, it was familiar. To Kaia, not so much. She had never kissed anybody before, let alone kiss a man that she had thought about more frequently and differently than she'd ever thought about a man before. The feeling was foreign and something she had only dreamed of- and now the roughness of his lips seemed surprisingly soft, his breath tickling her face-

Kaia had pulled away first, her face only slightly scrunched in a mixture of confusion and amazement. _Had that really just happened?_ She thought to herself while staring up at the satisfied face of Poe. As seconds passed of them simply staring at each other Poe's face of satisfaction grew to one of embarrassment- "Stars, Kaia, I'm sorry, I know that-" he began to fumble over her words and stepped away from her embrace, looking to the ground as droplets of rain flew from his hair.

"Poe- Poe!" Kaia insisted as a smile grew on her face. Poe looked up and saw the grin on her face, soft but sure. "Poe, it's… it's alright. You're having a difficult time right now, I know."

_Oh._

Her words hit Poe like a punch in the gut- so she did not think that that was real. She thought that his actions were coming from a place of grief. He knew that they weren't. This was what he'd wanted. He had known for quite some time now, but wasn't sure how he could ever admit it to himself with the predicament they were in. "Besides… perhaps a _tad_ inappropriate in front of a freshly-dug grave?" Kaia said, motioning to the soil where Tallissan's body lay. Poe nodded.

"Copy that."

With a grimace, he turned and accepted Kaia's guiding arm around his shoulders as they made their way back to the base with an air of silence shrouding them.

* * *

"You really think he still wants to help?" Han gruffed, crossing his arms as he stared out of the window of Leia's quarters. Leia pursed her lips.

"Han, he's my _brother-_ he'll help. Just wait," she insisted, taking a step closer to Han. He couldn't even look at her. Not now.

"He's not coming back. If he wanted to fix things, he would've been here already," Han sternly replied.

"You know him. Sometimes he just needs a bit of… persuasion," Leia replied, her tone softening slightly. Even she was unsure of that. "Kaia will give us that persuasion- and Rey. The light in them- they can help!"

"You know damn well a Jedi isn't going to help matters in the slightest!" Han shouted, turning around and throwing his hands in the air. "He disappeared so that the Jedi would _die-_ he's not going to help us, never again."

Leia remained silent. She wasn't sure what else to say to her husband to convince him that Luke was going to return and help the Resistance- she was sure of it. She knew her brother. She knew Luke. He would do the right thing, in the end, no matter how difficult it was. He always did.

"Besides- he's the one that put us into this mess. If it weren't for him…"

"Han, it's our fault just as much as Luke's. Don't you sit here and blame-"

Han sighed and his arms fell to his sides, shoulders sagging. He knew that Leia was right. He could never stop reminding himself how much him and Leia's fighting had affected Ben as a child, how he hadn't been around much, hadn't been the father he should've. Leia was right. It was just as much their fault as it was Luke's, if not more. "I know. I just… how can we fix this?" His voice sounded hopeless and dejected. There wasn't many things in the galaxy that Han acknowledged he could not fix but his long-lost son was one of them. Leia stepped towards Han and looked up towards him now, cupping one side of his face in her hand gingerly. They stared into each other's eyes and for just a few fleeting moments they were young again, full of hope and life and devoid of any of the anguish left in them by the events of the past twenty years. They were on Endor again, surrounding with light and love and laughter as they danced and drank the night away. They were in _love_ again. The kind of love that was youthful and hopeful and transcended across time. The love that never failed.

"Together. We can fix this _together."_

* * *

When they'd returned to the base, they were shortly greeted by a nurse to check on Poe's injuries and vitals. Kaia had taken the opportunity to excuse herself from the awkward air between her and Poe since the kiss they'd shared and head off to the jungle to continue training exercises with her saber once more. She had felt Ren holding back on the star destroyer and knew that if she were to become a worthy opponent of him, she'd have to grow in physical strength now. She was confident of her skills and technique, but her small size was a large weakness compared to Ren's towering height and size. She wasn't quite sure how Rey did it, but then again, Rey seemed to have some sort of raw strength that Kaia simply could not compare to.

She spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening in the jungle, the constant trickle of the rain washing the sweat off of her skin and keeping her relatively cool even though the rain was rather warm as rain went and the air remained thick and humid no matter how much it rained. As she slashed and trained ferociously with her cyan and silver saber she could nearly feel the presences of her masters behind her, their voices whispering advice in her ear. It was comforting, knowing that they were there. They always were- though now, with what the Force ghost of Obi-wan had showed her, perhaps they were with her even closer than she thought.

They would be so ashamed if they had learned what had transpired between Kaia and Poe.

Now of all times, with the amount of turmoil in the galaxy, she was allowing herself to become distracted by the connection. To have her judgement clouded and her valuable time consumed by the pilot. She could nearly hear Obi-wan and Yoda's voices in her head, telling her how bad of an idea it was and that she should stray from the attachment now before it led to something deeper she could not control.

Then again, Kaia had left the Jedi.

Did the words of Obi-wan and Yoda truly matter? She was training in the Force- sure, she primarily used the light side for the time being but it was the Jedi who had decreed that there shall be no emotional attachments, not the Force. The Force flowed through all living things, and to make life, two beings had to… well… _love._ Life wouldn't exist without love, and life would not exist without the Force. So, did it make love so out of the question? Perhaps not.

As she trained eagerly throughout the day she pondered the implications of putting that strict Jedi teaching behind her and following her feelings, followed Poe Dameron. Would it truly cloud her judgement as the Jedi claimed, or would it give her something to fight for?

* * *

She had spent the previous two nights per his request, and as the third approached, he made no efforts to request that she stayed again for the third. In fact, they had all but avoided each other since the encounter in the jungle. Kaia prayed to the stars that he would not cut off their friendship after she'd mildly rejected his feelings. She hoped that he could understand. If anything else, Poe Dameron was her best friend in this foreign world, her anchor. He had been the one to bring her into this mess and for that, Kaia had grown attached to him. She'd grown to like his sarcasm and brashness. It reminded her of Anakin, in a way.

The refresher had washed the sins away from her skin, cleansing the combination of sweat, rainwater, and tears from herself. She hadn't felt better in quite some time than when she stepped out of the 'fresher, cleansed and freshly clothed in the same pair of Poe's clothes that Threepio had been kind enough to launder for her with the help of an astromech droid. She hardly called them Poe's clothes at this point, she'd been wearing them for so long. Kaia would not have minded a traditional cloak at this point. Still, the absence of one helped her remember who she was. She'd left the Jedi. She was simply a Force user now.

It had not been long into her slumber that the Force had shocked her awake with the pangs of terror and fear emanating from the medbay. The Force was urging her to go there, to tend to the strong emotions and feelings flooding out from somebody there. When she arrived, it was unsurprisingly Poe thrashing about his bed in the middle of the night in a fit of fear caused by some sort of nightmare he was going. As she had the previous nights, she took a seat by Poe's bed, clasping his hand within hers but tonight, that did not stop him. He continued to fret in his sleep. She had no other choice but to crawl into bed beside him, drawing his body into hers. He had instantly calmed down. Whether he woke and felt her there, she did not know. She simply pressed his body into hers and attempted to soothe him with the Force as best she could before losing herself in sleep.

When Kaia woke, the bed was empty. There was no presence pressed up against her skin to make her warm and sweaty, no breathing to ease her into consciousness- Poe was gone. Her eyes flew open and in a panic, she sat up from where she'd been, concerned of the fate of her friend. Her eyes flew about the room and she saw the curtain move in the corner, drawing itself aside to reveal- "So you're feeling better, I presume?" Kaia asked, raising an eyebrow and looking at the pilot standing in the gap where the curtain had been drawn. His hair was freshly combed and he stood with a smirk glued to his face. His arm was still in a sling but the leg brace was gone and most of his cuts were entirely healed by now.

"Like I said, takes a lot more than that to keep me down," Poe jested.

"Glad I won't have to drag you around everywhere," Kaia sighed, yawning as she stretched and stepped off of the side of the bed.

"Well, the doctor says I'll be good to go, and this bad boy should be coming off in a few days," Poe said, slapping the side of his cast hanging in the sling. "Ribs still hurt but honestly, I've felt worse."

"You've looked worse, too," Kaia stated jokingly as she stood up and approached him. She had meant it as a lighthearted joke and only after the words had come from her mouth had she realized the implications of it. A smug grin grew on his face.

"Based on the last thing you said to me yesterday I never thought I'd hear you say that." There was the typical air of casual flirtatiousness in his voice but beneath that, there was layers that Kaia was not in the right headspace to decipher.

"Poe, I'm truly sorry-"

She was shocked when he reached up with his good arm and placed his index finger over her lips. "Shhhh. Don't wanna hear more about it. I've got my apology waiting."

She was entirely caught off guard, once again, by the brazenness of the pilot. Her cheeks flushed ever so slightly at the gentle touch of Poe's finger on her lips and, with eyes wide, watched as Poe retreated from the area and motioned for Kaia to follow him. She stepped forward from behind the curtain but glanced around. "Shouldn't we find the doctor to let her know you're leaving-"

"She knows, worrywart!" Poe whisper-shouted over his shoulder as to not disturb the other residents of the medbay too much. Kaia huffed but continued to follow the man through the medbay. Perhaps this would be a decision she would come to regret, perhaps not. Kaia wasn't exactly sure what kind of "apology" Poe had devised for her and based on Poe's tendencies, wasn't sure if she was eager or not to find out.

* * *

She dreamed about him. Always. The strangest dreams, really. Small, intricate pieces of a reality Rey could never have. The reality Rey was trying to build. Ben was always a streak of light in stark contrast with the overwhelming darkness that surrounded him. In a way, threads of the darkness were infused within him but for some reason she could not explain, it created a perfect harmony of light and dark. They were just dreams, of course, but she always liked to think that the Force was putting these images into her head for good reason.

She saw a child, sometimes.

A child with the neat, long black waves of Ben spilling down his shoulders but with the soft and warm brown eyes of Rey-

Just dreams. She knew that. Sometimes, it was hard to remember. It was hard not to cling to something that Rey and Ben could never have. Even if either side yielded, the stars did not have that fate laid out for them even if the Force did.

It was evident in their connection that Ben and Rey's fates were bonded together. But Snoke would never allow Kylo Ren to be completely happy with one he loved. He would use Rey against Kylo, manipulate him, twist the love and the connection into something that only hurt the two. The Resistance, the Republic, nearly ever free person in the galaxy would rise in indignation if they were to allow Kylo Ren to retire among their ranks and fight alongside them. Rey wasn't particularly sure how many individuals knew that Kylo Ren was the lost Ben Solo. She knew many believed Ben to be dead.

Besides, Poe knew. And Poe Dameron and his hatred for Ren was enough to convince Rey to keep Ben far, far away from the Resistance.

No. Their love was meant to be but in some sick cruel and twisted way, it never was. How do you begin to tell a story that never even started?

And Kaia.

Ben had been starting to scare her of the late, really. Ever since he'd dueled with her on the star destroyer and let her free without any further pursuit he'd been acting odd around Rey. He was already a man of few words but in a way, he seemed… quieter. Subdued. It was almost like he was sitting back, satisfied in the way that a loth cat slumbers after drinking a bowl full of milk. There was something he was hiding from her but she could not yet pinpoint what it was. He did not do that very often. Not things of importance, anyways. Kaia had thrown a wrench into this. Truth be told, having Kaia around lifted an immense weight of Rey's shoulders. She loved the Jedi, the closest thing that she'd ever had to a sister, even with the few moon-cycles that had passed since they'd met. Rey wasn't sure what she would be doing if Poe had not saved Kaia.

But ever since she'd come around, Ren had changed, and if even Rey could not interpret the change… well, there may be things in hold for the Resistance that they needed to be worried about.

* * *

"Poe, I'm not sure this is a great idea- the High Command needs you, Connix said that they were waiting for you to feel bett-" Kaia began, but Poe simply laughed and grabbed her hand, dragging her further into the tunnels that lay underneath the Resistance base. The further he dragged her, the fewer and fewer people they came across until the tunnel walls grew rather crude and very obviously uninhabited. She pursed her lips but continued to allow herself to be dragged into the darkness by Poe.

It made her feel something she never had before.

"The High Command will be there tomorrow, and the next day, and the next. They can wait," Poe called back. Kaia rolled her eyes but her stomach began to churn. They were very obviously alone and with what had transpired yesterday in the rain- feet away from Tallissan's grave, no less- Kaia was worried.

Worried about the decisions she had ahead of her. The decision to uphold something that she, as a Force-user, must abide to-

 _No._ It was the Jedi who had come up with the arcane rule and even now, she had trouble washing their propaganda from their mind. The Jedi had come up with the rule, and even if they'd done it with the right intentions, it made Kaia question her relationship with Poe. Whether or not… whether or not this was doable.

Even if it wasn't, she desperately wanted to make it doable. She needed this. They both did.

Eventually, Poe rounded a corner into a cave branching off the tunnel they'd been running down. Light was flowing out of the cave. When Poe dragged Kaia around the corner, she was a little shocked at what she saw. It was a smaller cave, of course, cut crudely from the rock of the planet. There were various dusty pieces of furniture spread throughout the space and a workbench on the one wall with random odds and ends that were in the middle of being tinkered on. On the other end of the space was a natural pool, of sorts, rather small but the steam emanating it was clearly visible from where Kaia stood. The hot water was a gorgeous and pure azure color with white foam lapping at the edges- Kaia glanced to Poe with suspicion raising on her face. In the middle of the space was a blanket with a spread of food laying out, some of it very obviously snatched from the kitchens when the cooks were not looking, some of it foreign and from other planets.

"Where- Poe, what is this?" Kaia asked incredulously. He turned to face her and let out a sigh of relief.

"A few months back a Republic transport brought in a pretty bad infestation of Scurriers- we were clearing the last of 'em out from down here and I found this place. A natural hot spring- you know, what can be better? I don't think anybody else knows it's here," Poe boasted. Kaia bit her bottom lip now and stared up at Poe.  
  
"So this is where you bring all the girls, isn't it?" Kaia asked suspiciously, raising one eyebrow and staring deep into Poe's eyes. Poe rubbed his chin and chuckled.

"No, Rey and Finn know this place is here, too. But they're not exactly around right now, are they? Just consider this a thank you. For everything."

"I thought you said that this was an apology?"

"Well… that too."

Kaia desperately wanted to tell him that there was nothing to apologize for, that he was simply acting on and reciprocating feelings they were obviously mutual between the two of them but she was at a loss for words. She needed some time alone to meditate on it, to ask the Force-

 _You are a human being, Kaia. Not just a Jedi. Not just a Force-user. A human. The Force should not dictate anything._ Her voice echoed within her head.

Perhaps her conscience was right. Maybe she should stop letting the Force make each and every decision for her after all. Perhaps it was time she start to do things for herself. After all, who could it really hurt, in the end?

She didn't have time to think about it for Poe had already dragged her onto the blanket, revealing the food he'd managed to scrounge up from places Kaia wasn't going to question. It certainly looked more appealing than the rations given out by the Resistance; they needed to cut costs and eating luxuriously wasn't exactly something they were going to give priority to when it came to funds. Luckily, though, Poe _always_ seemed to have a way to get whatever he wanted. "Who'd you have to sweet talk into getting this for you?" Kaia questioned suspiciously. Poe smirked.

"You don't wanna know," he sarcastically replied.

The two began to break bread and delve into the delicacies that Poe had scrounged for the two of them. He moaned and savored every bite of the delicious food having been consuming strictly hospital rations for the past week. It was certainly quite the entrance back into eating normal foods. He could not help but glance over to Kaia while she took bites of her food and smile. She seemed so carefree right now. Since she'd come to the base there'd been something hanging over her, something haunting her. Poe knew he was having nightmares at night and Kaia helped ease them but he couldn't do anything to ease her. A few times while she'd stayed at his beside in the medbay he'd been woken up by her twitching and moaning softly in her sleep due to some menace Poe could not see. He did not have the Force to ease the burden of memories and darkness. He couldn't help her from whatever was plaguing her mind. So he'd made it his personal goal to try and relieve some stress from her shoulders and right now, in the cave deep below the base, it was working. She was smiling and for once, there was no weight weighing it down.

Kaia felt it, too.

Poe did not even have the Force yet he calmed her. Maybe it was his charming words or those smooth brown eyes that seemed to suck her right in… she didn't want this anymore. There was enough conflict in her life and Poe shouldn't be one of them. She mulled over her thoughts while she chewed on her food but Poe had sensed that and so he continuously distracted her with an exorbitant amount of jokes and stories to rouse laughter from Kaia. She found the troubles of the past, present, and future fading away, dissipating and rising up to the surface of the base where they awaited her. But down here, those troubles were gone. It was just her and Poe now.

After they'd spent far too much time laughing and not nearly enough eating, Kaia was taken aback when Poe suddenly stood and began to take off his shirt- her cheeks reddened and her mouth opened in indignation. "Relax, sweetheart, this isn't for you," he assured when he gripped the waist of his pants and began to tug them down his legs. He was left only in his trunks and Kaia forced herself to look away, both absolutely appalled and embarrassed. Due to the confusion- and quite frankly, the overwhelmingly difficult feeling of glancing just _once-_ she could not decipher what he was doing

She was still unsure until he stepped into the pool. Kaia had assumed there'd been some sort of natural ledge for him to step on with the way Poe had placed his foot into the azure water but when he placed his other foot in the pool, something gave out from underneath him and with a yelp he slipped below the water with a splash, the only trace of him being a few ripples in the surface of the water. Kaia threw her food down and placed himself over the pool on all fours, staring down into the water- "Poe?" Kaia shouted, staring down below the surface. As beautiful as the water was it was rather opaque and so there was nothing visible below the surface- _stars, after all of that work did I seriously just let him drown?_ The thought was almost comical in her head but she did not have time to fret or worry about the implications for something right in front of her face splashed up from above the water and she felt herself being pulled into its depths.

She immediately took action when she found her skin warming up at the hot touch of the steaming water and closed her eyes and held her breath as she was dragged under the water. She braced herself for a wrestle with whatever creature had dragged her into the cerulean depths but all too soon she recognized the touch of Poe's grip on her arms, pulling her up towards the surface. Her head breached the water and she inhaled the oxygen deeply, eyes flying open in panic and already looking to her lightsaber next to the pile of Poe's clothes to fight off whatever it was-

"Relax. Geez, never swim before?" Poe's voice laughed, nearly breathless from the humor he found in the situation. Her face returned to Poe and she found a natural shelf on the edge of the pool, seating herself and catching her breath.

"Are you serious, Dameron? I thought that-"  
  
"Come on, I know this place better than anybody," Poe assured her through laughter. She huffed and looked down at her wet clothes with annoyance but had to admit the heat of the water felt like a bath- she hadn't had a bath since she was a child. Not one that wasn't bacta, anyways.

"These clothes were _just_ cleaned," Kaia whined, looking down at the wet material clinging to her wet skin. Poe was noticing the same thing albeit for _very_ different reasons. The way the damp shirt clung to the subtle curves of her waist, the supple curves of her breast… after he'd just stared for a few seconds too long he shook himself out of it as his laughter died down and brought his eyes to Kaia's face.

There was a silence only breached by the quiet bubbling of the hot pool as the wispy white steam rose up in curls around them, surrounding them and only causing the claustrophobia of it all to draw each other closer together. In the water, nothing mattered- it was only Poe and Kaia, one barely clothed and the other wishing she was wearing far less than she was. Poe's arm was still draped around Kaia's shoulders from where he'd dragged her to the surface of the water after fooling her and their faces were close, tantalizingly close- all rational thought and all feelings of the past slipped away as the heat of the pool drove Kaia and Poe's lips together and once more, they met with a tenderness tinged with passion that had been pent up for so long. The heat of the water only drove them into more desparate actions and Poe could not help but take in the entirety of the sweetness that Kaia's lips had to offer, wanting nothing but to _own_ these lips, to make them his.

Everything Kaia had ever learned faded away into the air of the cave with the rest of the steam. Her body knew exactly what to do, her lips moving in rhythm with the pilot's and he inched his hand to the back of her head, his fingers becoming entangled in her hair as he pressed her head even harder against his yet so tender, so gentle. A warm glow began to rise in her stomach, something she knew was not stirring from the warm water but from the depths of her womanhood- a feeling she'd rarely felt, if ever. And now… it was unbearable. Unbearable what Poe was causing her to feel, knowing she could act no further, could not have what the feeling demanded- yet she could not stop herself. The lifetime of restraint disappeared the instant that the pilot's lips had touched hers for the second time and so she allowed Poe to press up against her on the wall of the pool, feeling every point of contact between her and him, his moist skin glowing from the steam and the heat of the pool-

Eternities passed while they sat on the ledge of the pool, both of their minds screaming to remove clothing, to get even closer than they were but both of them knew they couldn't. Not now. Perhaps not ever. But kiss, they shall, and kiss they did. Whether it had been minutes or hours neither of them knew for the sweetness of each other threw them both into an oblivion they could not escape from… until Kaia suddenly began to tense, the movement of her mouth shifted just enough for Poe to notice a change.

It was painful for him to pull away but he pulled his lips off of hers with pain and rested his forehead against hers, staring deep into her eyes. The eye contact made the glow and the warmth feel even more intense than when they'd been embracing and in that moment, Poe knew there was something different about this girl. Something special. He'd always been a hit with women and found himself in more of these situations than he'd care to admit but never like this. Never with anybody like her. Still, the reason he'd pulled away is because he'd felt apprehension and so his hand slipped from the back of Kaia's head to her cheek and he tenderly rubbed the apple of her cheek with his thumb. "You alright?" He murmured, his breath tickling Kaia's nose. Kaia sighed shakily and reached her hand up, grasping Poe's wrist.

"I… perfect. I've just… I've never…" her voice trailed off into silence. She had never been with a man before, not even anything as simple as a kiss, not even after she'd left the Jedi. It had been against her nature, everything she'd ever known. Besides, no men at the Jedi temple had caught her interest enough anyways. Poe chuckled and continued to stroke her cheek. His cock was throbbing and begging to break free of the thin piece of fabric on his waist, to get closer to Kaia and he had to swallow down the temptation to push things further for Kaia's sake. This had only been her second kiss; he couldn't push her into anything more. That would take time, time for her to become comfortable with anything. Poe was willing to wait. He'd wait a lifetime for her.

"It's alright. Gotta say, you're doing pretty well. I'll call it beginner's luck," Poe gently chided. Kaia's eyes glanced back up into his and a smile grew on her face. Still, when the implications of what was occurring hit her her face fell once more and her eyes fell to the blue surface of the pool- Poe pulled away a little bit and placed two of his fingers under Kaia's chin, raising her face up until she was staring back into his eyes again. "Hey. Talk to me."

Kaia closed her eyes and sighed, nestling her chin into Poe's palm hesitantly. "I just… this goes against everything I've ever known."

"You left them, Kaia. You said it yourself, your beliefs no longer aligned with theirs," Poe gently reminded Kaia.

"I know, I know. But sometimes I wonder if some of their beliefs had more merit to them than I thought," she murmured, squeezing her eyes tightly. She was afraid that the Jedi had been right about connections driving Jedi into darkness, inspired by the thoughts and ideas of saving and protecting those they loved with the terrors of the dark side. It had already happened to Kaia once. What she'd done to those Stormtroopers on the Star Destroyer, the rage she'd felt the entirety of Poe's imprisonment by the First Order… Kaia was frightened that that had only been the tip of the iceberg. If she allowed a deeper relationship to blossom between her and the pilot, where would it leader her to?

"Come on, Kaia, you can't let a bunch of old men choose your future," Poe joked softly. He succeeded into getting her to smile, if only faintly. "If it's not what you want… that's alright. I get it, and I'll still be here for you. But I need you to know that if this _is_ what you want… I won't let anything happen to you. I'm Poe fucking Dameron, for stars sakes. I can protect you from _anything."_

She looked up back into Poe's eyes and the past few months flashed by her irises- the warmth she'd felt by his presence even when she could not see him, when she did not know who he was. She'd been drawn to him instantly and she'd felt something so _strong,_ so _brave,_ so _passionate_ and so, so full of _light_ that she knew she had to escape with him. She remembered when she'd been forced to crawl onto the pilot's lap when she didn't even know his name, arms flung around his neck to avoid getting thrown about the cockpit while he expertly weaved in between ships and shot down X-wings with a limited field of view and somebody limited his movement, barely batting an eye at the challenge. She remembered the way he made her _laugh,_ all of the time, constantly. And the way he could bring positivity and light to even the worst of situations- how could Kaia _ever_ be scared of darkness with Poe Dameron in her life? Rey might have been a light in the darkness of the Force but Poe Dameron was a light in the darkness of the entire galaxy. He was right, and she knew it. With him by her side she would have nothing to worry about.

She was more than a council of old men telling her who and who she could not care about.

Poe pressed his forehead into Kaia's and hips lips grew tantalizingly close, grazing over hers sending shivers up and down her spine before pulling away and looking into her eyes with a tone of seriousness he'd not had before. "And I might be the smartest person in this base but I'm also the dumbest so if I'm chasing something that isn't there or if you don't feel the same way about me-" he began to fumble over his words but Kaia simply smiled and pulled his lips back towards hers.

For the second time in her life, Kaia Wyn threw aside the teachings of the Jedi and left a piece of her behind. She loved Poe Dameron, and it was time to fully understand what love truly was.


End file.
